Animus
by ChibityIcee
Summary: Shortly after moving to Yagokoro City, Kanji Tatsumi is assaulted by a street gang that's developed a method of attacking their victims through their minds with a technique called Shadow Extraction. Found by the police and subsequently Naoto Shirogane, the two begin uncovering the origins of this strange activity through hands-on experience. Updates Monday, Friday and on Tumblr!
1. Chapter 1

**Animus**

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_Welcome to Animus! If this is your first time here, I'll lay down a few of this story's special features for you. For one, Animus has a home on Tumblr that includes on-time updates, my random art squabbles, the story's official illustrations, and an Ask Blog which will become character-interactive in future chapters._

_You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction!_

_Second, every chapter will be accompanied by illustrations provided by myself. They will be integrated into the Tumblr updates ONLY, as FanFictionNet does not allow linking._

_Finally, this is a COMPLETED STORY. It is 28 chapters long and will be updated every Friday._

_Disclaimer wise, there is implied intimacy, violence, language, and death. Please be aware if that's not your fort__e__. There's plenty of lightheartedness in this story to enjoy as well. As well, this story contains one or two original characters, but any characters belonging to Atlus and the Shin Megami Tensei/Persona franchise are not my property. I do not own them or their rights.  
_

_With that said and done, enjoy the show!_

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**Prologue**

April 8th, 2013, Monday

What is it about thunderstorms that drive a night wild? With the harsh rain drumming against the streets and the occasional lightning catching everyone by surprise, it was no surprise that half of Yagokoro City's population failed to get any good rest that night. There was something about the rain… It always seemed to stir up trouble within this city. Like an omen calling for those with a trickster's spirit to come out and play. Anyone who chose to be outside on a night like this was surely dancing with the devil. Unfortunately, to those new to this city, that sort of knowledge didn't just hand itself over on a platter. It took an accident, or a late hour run back home to put someone outside in this sort of weather. The latter was the reason why Kanji Tatsumi was now in desperation to get home and held back by an encounter that he'd not soon forget.

They blocked his path, a good handful of men and women, roughly all around their early twenties or so. It was a good mixture of people, and though they didn't seem like your practical, standard street gang, they held the demeanor of one. It was threatening…

"G-get bent…" Kanji uttered low enough that only he could hear it in this rain. Taking a slow turn on his heels, he attempted to walk around the group at a good distance. However, they fanned outwards and continued to block his path, moving onto the street so that he'd be unable to cross. Stepping back, Kanji realized his only way out would be the way he came, but they'd follow. Surely they would, and easily… there were nearly two dozen people here.

Clenching his fists, Kanji stood his ground and expected the worst. This wasn't the first time he had been in a scenario like this; with gangs and whatnot. However, the last few times were something that he did of his own accord and for his mother. What reason did these people have to tangle with him right here and right now? Whatever it was, he braced himself and was ready to find out.

Remaining still, Kanji allowed them to progress forwards, one man standing out most prominently within the group. His combed back hair and short goatee were the colour of a warm, red fire, and he stood out as some sort of self-proclaimed leader. Kanji could almost smell the stink of the man's breath as he stepped into his personal bubble, staring into his face intently. Not a muscle was moved until the leader brought a hand up close to Kanji's cheek, fingers curled as if he were about to grab his hair. Kanji immediately grasped the man's wrist and lifted a fist towards his nose, holding back the blow.

"Fuck off… all of you…" Kanji's words shook. Could he handle something like this…? None of the individuals here seemed all that formidable; in fact, they looked so average that it was bothersome. But there were a lot of them… It was something Kanji soon realized when at least four people piled against him, one trying to hold back his arms from behind. The leader reared backwards as Kanji's fist finally released a panicked punch, barely scraping the side of the leader's cheek due to a pair of arms that were now holding back Kanji's bicep. His struggles to break free were in vain with the immense amount of bodies that were using their strength-in-numbers logic to keep him weighted down. Even his legs were pinned to the point where he couldn't kick.

Kanji made a few short stomps on the ground and grit his teeth, "You're animals… let me go, damn it!"

Nearly every person in the group slowly shook their heads. They presented crooked smiles and muttered 'nope' until it sounded like some sort of demonic ambience. Even Kanji could tell that they didn't seem right in their minds at all.

"You're ours…" "Ours!" they uttered with excitement.

The conflict was stirring up quite a bit of commotion. With most of the city still awake, Kanji's shouting mixed in with the clamor of two dozen people was a thing you couldn't easily ignore. A few nearby homes were turning on their lights and opening their windows briefly to peak outside. Thankfully there were enough people in this city with a sense of justice, enough to call up the police and inform them of the issue.

Unable to understand the situation he was in, Kanji took no particular notice when the familiar hands of the leader pressed into the back of his neck. After all, he already had enough hands and arms plastered all over him. However, that began to change as Kanji felt an unusual sense of heat against the back of his neck. Crawling up his spine, it tickled his nerves upwards as if it were seeping into his mind and massaging it with delicate, soft fingers. He stopped struggling for just an instant, feeling as if the weight of all the people against him was… just disappearing. His eyes rolled back slowly, mouth agape as his ability to focus was going… going… going… no. No, this isn't right. Almost as quickly as the feeling of bliss hit him did Kanji manage to rebound. A surge of adrenaline forced one of his legs a whole 90 degrees upwards, sending one person flying at least a good two meters away. Having caught the gang off guard, Kanji thrust his elbow back into the rib of the woman who held tightest to his arms, knocking a gasp of air out of her. With said arm and leg finally freed, Kanji was able to make an awkward turn towards the leader, unleashing his fist against the man's cheek. He certainly didn't miss this time.

"Goro-san!" one person called out with exasperation and quickly let go of Kanji's body to see to their leader. One by one, their interest in holding Kanji down seemed to diminish and the boy stepped out of the group, completely bewildered.

Kneeling down at their leader's level, a woman lifted the leader's head and checked for any wounds. A few eyes glared up at Kanji. "Animal…? Peuh…" they murmured with disgust.

Now hold on, weren't they the ones that had piled up on him? What did they honestly expect someone to do? Kanji slowly stepped backwards, holding his sore arms and shaking his head. It didn't feel like he hit someone with ill intentions… these were all normal people. Something was wrong about all of this…

Everyone's attention was suddenly grabbed by the sound of sirens in the distance, a flash of red and blue racing its way along the road. At least three cars and a number of motorbikes were already close enough to spot the quarrel. The gang was quick to scramble to its feet and a good three people were required to lift their unconscious leader to safety. Amazingly street-wise, they all seemed to disappear like cockroaches once the lights were turned on. Kanji winced as the lights, even at a distance, shone into his eyes and turned him back in the direction that he was originally going. With his path clear, he bolted from the scene and prayed that he could outrun a vehicle. Not too likely.

Already exhausted from the previous encounter, he began to run out of breath almost immediately and scanned the area for a place to hide. His shadow was cast clearly in front of him as the headlights of a motorbike washed against his back. Nearly bypassing an alleyway, he figured it was dark and skinny enough to be missed by a speeding vehicle, so he took his chances and ducked inside, following it as far as he could. Go figure, it was a dead end, nothing more than the backdoor to a few buildings. The bike behind him was close enough that it made a skidding U-turn back towards the alleyway and came to a stop outside of its entrance. Kanji flattened himself against the darkest wall and, if one listened closely enough, could hear him whining. Running footsteps echoed against the brick walls and once the boy was in view, the click of a gun rang through Kanji's ears.

"Hands up!" yelled a demanding female voice, which prompted Kanji's immediate obedience. He clenched his eyes shut and lifted his hands out of the shadows. Almost everything was currently obscured by the rain.

"Stay where you are. You're being held until the cops arrive," she announced, keeping him at gunpoint until those who could make a proper arrest found them. Wait, this wasn't a cop? Kanji opened one eye and, though he couldn't see the woman very well, he could have sworn that voice was…

He uttered out another sentence, "I was jumped. I swear, I didn't mean to hurt anyone… T-those guys are who you should be aft-" Kanji's pleading was immediately interrupted.

"You were involved…" she reminded, her voice seeming to trail off as she looked up from the aim of her gun, staring directly at Kanji. The occasional streak of lightning lit up the alleyway and unmasked their faces briefly. What followed almost immediately was a thunder of realization.

"S'that you…?" Kanji questioned, eyes squinting. He kept his voice small, realizing that he'd look like quite the idiot for assuming and then being wrong.

"Tatsumi-kun? ..." she answered, causing him to look up with brightened eyes. Gun lowered, the woman barely noticed as two cops ran past her sides and towards the boy. Coming to her senses, she stepped forwards as Kanji was held up to the wall, a pair of cuffs forcing his arms together. "Hold on, I think I know this person…" she spoke out.

As she walked up to his side, the cop holding Kanji's arms turned so she could get a better look at his face. Kanji's bleached hair was no longer slicked back, but he retained the same piercings and their height difference was just as obvious as always, "It is you, Tatsumi-kun…"

Kanji shrugged his shoulders slowly. He couldn't deny his joy over this, but was this really the best place for a reunion after nearly a whole year had passed? It was better than nothing, and he expressed his words with playful sarcasm, "Good to see you again, Naoto-"

"Shirogane" she flicked her last name at him like a pebble to the forehead, holding a serious face. She couldn't play it cute around the big boys, apparently. Stepping back with a small nod, she looked to the officer, "I'll be questioning this one if you plan on taking him in."

This one…

Kanji wondered just how many of his assailants they had managed to capture, if any at all. Holding his head down, he let the officer lead him out of the alleyway, only glancing up for a moment as they walked past Naoto. Her focus had shifted to a radio signal coming through on her earpiece, talking back as information came through. As Kanji was herded into a police car, he caught sight of Naoto jumping back onto a rather ornate red motorcycle and she left in the direction that Kanji imagined she would find his attackers. A night owl in search of more mice.

Kanji slumped back into his seat and closed his eyes, expecting that the drive to the police station would be the only chance at sleep that he would be getting tonight.

* * *

What were the odds…?

Indeed, it had been about 10 months since Naoto had left Inaba claiming that the best education in law enforcement could be found within the city, and if she wished to get anywhere with that, she'd have to earn the trust of the local police. Still in high school, however, she knew that gaining their respect wouldn't happen overnight, and thus she felt that the sooner she left Inaba, the better. Such a day didn't pass without sorrow, though. And while everyone was convinced that they'd keep in contact with her in the beginning, the interest in doing so seemed to peter off as the days grew busier. There were no chances to visit, and with both Naoto and Yu missing, the group dynamic just couldn't hold itself together like it used to.

Kanji kept his eyes closed for the entire ride and pondered over such nostalgic thoughts. Only the occasional voice on the car's radio signal caught his attention and reminded him of where he was. How did those policemen manage to understand each other over such terribly fuzzy signals…? Kanji was close to genuinely falling asleep until the bump of the parking lot rolled under the tires and stirred him awake.

As he was navigated to the entrance of the station, Kanji felt a rush of butterflies hit his stomach and left him wondering how he could have possibly fallen asleep just moments ago. During his walk down the station hallway, he took notice of one of the clocks on the walls. Ah, that's right; it was past midnight now, that's why.

"We'll have someone with you in a minute if you'll please sit," spoke one of the cops as they walked into a virtually empty room. The walls were as grey and lifeless as they could get. A table with a few chairs rested in the center of the room, and nothing else stood out on the table except for a rather pointless lamp, considering the room was already lit by rows of fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. Kanji took a seat at the end of the table and waited for the cops to leave before dropping his head down on the wooden surface, sighing.

* * *

"You can wake up now," suggested a voice in his head. No, not in his head… Wait, crap!

Kanji abruptly lifted himself back up and rubbed his eyes. How long had he been sleeping like that for? A woman had entered the room and woke him up with her voice, and while he was certain of who it was going to be, the woman in front of him didn't match the Naoto that he remembered.

"I apologize for taking so long. Many of us got quite waterlogged out there and your assailants were especially difficult to follow. What a night…" she spoke as she sat down on the other end of the table, still squeezing small drops of water out of her damp hair. The same navy blue darkness now crept down her back and lay flat against a pale, tan coat. The hat that she always used to wear was missing as well.

"Naoto…?" Kanji confirmed one last time, even if it was obvious.

The woman folded her arms on the table, "Do I honestly look that different?" she questioned with a somewhat vexed stare and simply nodded, "It is me… but this is not what we're here to discuss right now. While it's always fortunate to see old friends again, I have some serious questions about why you were outside tonight. And maybe a few about why you're here in general…"

Kanji sat back. Fortunate, truly… Unfortunate though that he wasn't going to be allowed the idle chit-chat he was hoping for, "Gettin' right to the chase, huh? … Alright, lay it on me."

"First, about the people that confronted you. Do you believe that you were targeted for any of the reasons that had you out this late at night?" she asked, cleverly sneaking two questions into one sentence.

Kanji scratched his cheek lightly at the complicated question, "The reason I was outside…? I don't see why. I was jus' picking up some medicine for someone and the storm hit on the walk back. Then those creeps appeared…" as he spoke, he reached down into his pocket and pulled out a very generic bottle of pain killers. Nothing out of the ordinary, nor had any of his belongings ever been visible during the attack.

Naoto shook her head, "Could be that someone snuck something into that container of yours…?"

Even with doubts, Kanji undid the lid and checked while Naoto pondered over her next question. He noted nothing unusual and spoke up, "I honestly think it was just a random act of violence…"

"We wouldn't bother with all this questioning if it were simply that. We'd have you hospitalized for any wounds and the felons detained, but unless you're hiding something, you don't look injured at all. Furthermore, those men and women hardly seemed like the type to go around collecting victims. A scrawny bunch… At best, they might have been a college frat high off of who-knows-what who confused you for someone they didn't like," she continued on with her deductions at a pace that left Kanji mindless. Mindless…

He sat up straight, "They did something, though. D'unno what it was, but it was damn weird."

Naoto nodded, "Yes, I was going to ask… exactly what did they do?"

"Right here," he said, patting the back of his neck, "The whole bunch of 'em held me down and I swear this one guy had his hands right here, then some crazy shit happened. I couldn't think, I didn't want to move. I was afraid I was having some kind of paralysis from the shock but… I get this feeling that the guy behind me caused it. It wasn't just me…"

Naoto had already gotten up and walked over, leaning forward to get a better look at Kanji's neck. If anything was going to cause him paralysis now, it was her getting this close so suddenly.

"No needle marks… nor are there any irritations or burns. And you're sure that this wasn't in your head…?" she asked.

"Something that intense…? Nuh uh."

"If I may…" she asked, raising her hand to his neck. He showed no objections, but slowly turned his gaze away and forced down his stomach butterflies as she applied pressure to the spot with two fingers. "It doesn't hurt?" she asked, which he replied to with the swift shake of his head.

Naoto sighed, "Well, I'm no doctor, but you seem fine…"

"Neh, that wasn't really what he did, though…" Kanji replied, looking up at her.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any other sort of motive aside from this… phenomenon that he was explaining to her. While it made no immediate sense, the very core of her job was to make sense of things. Naoto prayed that this wouldn't be a waste of time and lifted her hair over one shoulder, turning around, "Alright, so show me what he did, then."

Kanji was taken aback, "E-eh? Touch you?"

"It was just your neck, wasn't it? You're no stranger, Tatsumi-kun... Perhaps he hit some sort of pressure point," she noted.

Kanji lifted himself from his seat with unease. Was this the kind of thing that went on in interrogation rooms all the time? Getting all touchy feely? No, no, it was just an example, a demonstration… If she didn't think that this was important, she wouldn't be letting him do it. His shaky hands settled on her skin and calmed down, both palms around the back of her neck while his upright thumbs put pressure on the base of her skull, "Just like that, I guess…"

Naoto focused on the point of contact and lidded her eyes. If nothing came of this, then she would have a difficult time trying to understand the situation from the gang's perspective. But perhaps Kanji was right, maybe it was just a mere act of violence. Maybe it was… just a little… difficult to think about. How… does one… really explain… this… wait…. what…

Naoto's eyes clouded over as a warm sensation gradually tickled at her chest and numbness overtook her mind. All normal sensations seemed to be completely blocked off while whatever remained was unexplainable… but pleasurable. Left in complete silence, Kanji leaned forwards and raised an eyebrow, "Hey? … Gonna need some feedback here."

No reply.

Bothered by her lack of response, Kanji lifted his hands from her neck. The moment the contact was lost, Naoto blinked back to life with widened eyes and she whirled around defensively, the back of her hand meeting against Kanji's cheek.

"D-damnit, what!" Kanji yelled back and pressed a hand to his reddened skin, caught completely off guard. Surely the leader of that gang would sympathize with him.

Naoto wrapped her arms in front of her and shook her head at him, "Sorry, t-that… was terribly awkward. Never do that, ever again," she spoke, noticing his hurt cheek. Her expression softened, showing a bit of guilt, "I'm sorry… you must be tired. I suppose I am too… that was quite uncalled for of me. Though, it seems like you might have been on to something after all."

Kanji rested a hand against his forehead, "You don't say."

Looking down at her watch, Naoto nodded and held back a small yawn, "I still have some questions for you… For example, I never asked why you're here in Yagokoro, but… that's irrelevant to what happened here tonight. So, I suppose it's a question not meant for right now…" she looked up to him, "I'll make sure you're dismissed without a bother. Do you need someone to drive you home?"

Kanji winced and turned towards the door, "Ah- yeah, I guess… As long as there's nothing shady about a cop car pulling into my driveway."

"We have other vehicles, you know. Undercover and all that," she chuckled, leading him out of the room.

Turning towards her, Kanji made sure to ask before it was too late, "'Ey… since you had that other question… It's probably something you don't want to hear b-but... if you really want to know, I'm free after class tomorrow. Y'know… c-coffee… maybe?"

Naoto looked at him with serious eyes, ready to call him out on it. By definition standards, he was asking her out on a date. Though she really was curious to hear what he had to say… Curiosity was something in her nature that she could never deny. So be it, then. Pulling out a small notebook and pen from her coat, she scrawled down the address to a nearby coffee shop on a piece of paper and handed it to him, "If you can make it, then."


	2. Chapter 2

**Animus**

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_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

_Note: The characters Touko Aoi and Sousei are introduced in this chapter. These are Atlus-canon characters from Persona x Detective Naoto, a spin-off novel. Their personalities and characteristics are my own interpretation since I have yet to find a translated version of the novel. As well, if they seem to lack description, it's because I only know so much about them, though you can easily find picture references for them._

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April 9th, 2013, Tuesday

Shinri High's bell chimed in the new day, calling inside the few stragglers who failed to make it to class on time. It was a rather prestigious private high school and Shinri's students were known for their punctuality and self-esteem, so the number of late students a day could never be counted on more than one hand. It was uptight and strict, but the students here were accepted knowing that they would be going far.

Naoto opened one eye at the sound of the bell, her head and arms rested against the desk in front of her. She quickly sat up straight before the teacher arrived, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention to herself. So tired… What kind of joke was it; that someone could be so awake at night, and then get three hours of sleep and feel more listless instead of perked up in the morning? It wasn't unusual for Naoto to arrive at school with bags under her eyes. In fact, the tired look was becoming more and more a part of her natural expression due to her lack of sleep at night. She managed to just barely meet her needs by splitting her sleeping hours into the short periods between work and school, leaving her with little time for anything else. Most of those who knew her could tell that she was overworked, but they held back from reminding her out of fear. You simply didn't criticize Shirogane's ways lest you become the target of her irritation; it was like some sort of unwritten rule.

Well, most people obeyed that rule. Touko Aoi wasn't one of them. As a dear childhood friend from the city and fellow detective at Yagokoro's police station, she had the slight advantage of being able to pry into Naoto's thoughts without causing too much distress. While Naoto perceived most others' conversation as troublesome teasing, she felt that Touko was always genuinely concerned, no matter how badly she showed it.

"So, was it studying this time or more Super Shirogane crime fighting?" questioned a voice behind Naoto, gently poking the eraser end of a pencil into her backside. It was Touko, obviously.

"Cape and all…" Naoto replied with a short yawn, turning to her friend, "Did it really have to rain so hard last night? Even after I got home, it was still keeping me up…"

Touko's face, first amused by Naoto's comeback, fell into a frown that didn't suit her wily personality. "A day off is what you need… or at least some of the coffee they serve at the station. I swear they stick guarana into that stuff; it'll keep you buzzed for hours."

"Maybe… maybe…" Naoto answered, slowly bringing her attention back to the front of the room when she noticed the class going quiet. The teacher had entered, and thus began Naoto's routine challenge of staying alert for the rest of the day. Very few times had the teacher actually called her out for not paying attention, but when he did, he usually singled her out with questions instead. Whatever happened to raising one's hand to answer things? In most of this teacher's classes, there was no such option. You either knew the answer when the great finger of knowledge pointed at you, or you didn't eat dinner that night. Metaphorically speaking.

Thankfully, no such single outing occurred today, leaving Naoto to pay attention to the smaller, unnoticed things in life. The tack of the chalk against the blackboard, the murmur of students in the back seats, and the slight breeze that flowed in from the window she sat nearest to… hmm. Shifting her attention out the window for a quick glance, Naoto noticed a group of students huddled close together by the basketball courts. Even though no one could hear them from such a distance, the students made quiet hand signals at each other and often peered over their backs. That wasn't a class… Those students weren't supposed to be outside, were they? The sound of the school bell rang out and brought Naoto's attention back forward.

"Right, see you all after the break," announced the teacher, putting his things away so that he could head off to lunch, an action mimicked by most of the students.

"Going out for a smoke. You eating in here?" Touko asked as she threw her bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah, sorry…"

Touko chuckled and ruffled the top of Naoto's head, "Yeehh, you stay here. I'll bring you back something nice, alright?" she smiled, and walked off with a wave.

Naoto didn't need anything… just more sleep. Throughout the break she mused over how quickly she would pass out the moment she got home from school, indulging in the thought… until it hit her that she had plans to see Kanji again. Perhaps she'd make it quick and then skip a night of work to get some actual rest. That'd be good…

* * *

"Ohh, man, do I have news for you," Touko directed her voice at Naoto the moment she got back to the classroom.

Naoto's first response was to stare at Touko's arms for anything of interest, but it seemed like her friend got caught up in something else. No snacks today.

"Yes, what is it?" Naoto answered.

"Alright, so you were after some gang last night, right? I heard they got taken in and questioned over some paranormal stuff they were doing to people on the streets. Real ghost-y-psycho-y business they called 'Shadow Extraction', so y'know… when I heard about it, it was all a big joke at the station 'cause no one's taking this thing seriously. All the cops figured these kids were just high off their arses," Touko explained, looking terribly amused in her own hypocrisy. This girl got way too relaxed after taking a drag. She continued, "I'm starting to think that it's not so ridiculous, though... There's some rumor flying about that there's someone coming from the next school over after classes. In the forest behind the school, he's going to 'lecture' a bunch of people about this Shadow Extraction thing. Whoever wants to come, I guess… and I bet school staff already knows. But whatever, even if they do crash the party, we should check it out, shouldn't we?"

Naoto's fingers pressed into her desk, looking tense. She couldn't abandon Kanji over something like this… but it was related to the case last night. Perhaps a quick appearance would be fine, and if she happened to learn anything, it would benefit the both of them, "We won't stay too long…"

"Course not. And hey, if you were there last night and this ends up being something significant, they might put you on the case, so you better pay attention early, no?" she smiled and took her seat behind Naoto again. At the very last second, she pulled out a can of lemonade, set it on her friend's desk and hid herself behind an opened textbook as if nothing had happened.

Emitting a soft laugh, Naoto opened the can and took a sip, "Thank you."

* * *

The spring wind rustled and pushed around the many trees that bordered Shinri High. It was the perfect day to be outside in general if you didn't mind the damp grassy flooring and the trickles of dew that escaped from the leafy canopy whenever the wind hit just right. A strange aura could be felt the moment Naoto and Touko entered the forests and they kept their gazes down as beads of water fell against them.

"I don't think we're early…" noted Touko as they caught a glimpse of a small grouping of students.

Naoto shook her head, "Nope."

Approaching closer, the two could count at least thirty different students in the area, all wearing the standard cream coloured uniforms in accordance to Shinri's dress code. To Naoto's surprise, there didn't appear to be a single staff member in sight like Touko theorized there would be. It seemed like the student body was more capable at delivering secrets and rumors than they both expected. Within the group, a few students began stepping back, giving Naoto just enough room to notice an individual who, amidst all of this colour segregation, stood out like a sore thumb. Dressed from head to toe in black, he wore a male uniform that she was unfamiliar with, but it reminded her greatly of Yasogami's without the houndstooth collar. She assumed it was the uniform of some alternative high school, given the fact that she didn't recognize it as 'belonging to the next school over' like Touko had said. The student himself was virtually impossible to identify, as he had decided to wear a thin hoodie underneath the uniform and sunshades over his eyes. With the hoodie up, he was physically anonymous, and probably chose to be so considering the things he knew.

When Naoto caught sight of him, he was already in the process of performing on another student. With his hands on her neck, he leaned forwards and seemed to whisper something into her ear. The momentary look of unease on the girl melted away as they both dipped their heads down and focused, feeling the wind stir between the branches of the trees. Naoto's hands sweat…

The result was abrupt and unexplainable… All at once, the wind in the area kicked up and a mass of birds lifted into the air. As if triggered by a hunter's gunshot, they screeched and fled the scene before anyone else could sense that something was wrong. All heads turned to the female student as her eyes snapped open and for a brief moment, seemed to flash an opaque pink colour. Completely lost in a wave of sensations, she emitted incomprehensible noises and gripped at her head. Save for the black clothed student, everyone in the vicinity stepped back and stared with dropped jaws.

There it was…

A ghost? Some sort of hallucination? Floating above the female student was an undeniably complex, artificial form that comprised of metal and threads of light, all transparent and very difficult to comprehend. Remaining stationary, it seemed alive and aware of its surroundings, yet didn't express any aggression. No one ran… and in the back of Naoto's mind rang a familiar word that she couldn't help but mouth silently: … Persona.

Touko clung to her short friend's arm and stared with disbelief, "How…?"

"I don't know…" Naoto whispered back. Despite all of her knowledge on these creatures, the possibility of them existing outside of the TV world didn't make any sense. And don't think for a moment that she didn't try. There was a good chance that all the members of the Investigation Team had tried summoning their Personas outside of the TV at least once. Of course, no one had been successful.

"Perhaps you'd like to know," spoke the odd student in a low voice, turning towards Naoto and Touko. As he lowered his arms, the female student kneeled to the ground before slumping down onto her stomach, panting softly. As her expression normalized, the creature which hovered closely over her dissipated into the air. She seemed fine, yet weary.

Touko, still holding onto Naoto's arm, took one step back as Naoto took one step forward. Touko quickly shook her head, "Don't you dare…"

Naoto lidded her eyes. Her friend didn't know about Personas… To anyone else, this was an illusion, some sort of hoax… It was impossible for such a creature to actually appear, but in Naoto's mind, she knew it was real. A creature born from the heart and a representation of one's inner self… yes, they were very real. Looking over her shoulder, Naoto passed a stern glance at Touko and whispered, "You said it yourself, didn't you? If this links back to the attack last night, then we might have ourselves a case," she looked back at the strange student, "And I need to know what this is."

"Then come forwards and I'll show you…" spoke the student, cracking his knuckles dramatically.

Naoto held her ground, "Tell us."

He wiggled his finger in response, shaking his head, "No no…" Go figure. He came here to show, not to tell. "Don't you believe that there are some things in life that are better learned through experience than through someone else's chewed up and regurgitated words? Why else am I here…?" he noted at the end, his gaze locked on Naoto. Such a stare only drew her forwards, like a challenge.

"Fine then…" she answered, bringing herself out into the center of the clearing with the stranger, Touko reaching forward as if begging her friend to come back. The female student from earlier had already pulled herself back up and was chattering with another group over how amazing the experience had been. It helped ease the anxiety to know that this girl had survived without any obvious issues. And so, the stranger repeated the process, his hands marked against the back of Naoto's neck in the same way that Kanji had showed her the night before. Everything was the same… right down to the smallest tickle. Naoto concentrated on staying calm, not intent on giving the watching students the same sort of show that the other girl had. No, that would have been embarrassing…

"Yamato… Takeru…" whispered a voice into Naoto's ear, causing her to freeze on the spot. How did he know that name? She was just moments from breaking their contact to ask him how he could have possibly known such a name, but… no… she couldn't move. At all. The very realization that she had been paralyzed put her mind in a panic, but soon enough, it too was unable to think. What was happening…!?

Naoto's eyes opened wide, but she could barely process what she was seeing. No one was staring at her, only above, and the oddest sound was resonating from upwards where she could not see. Then, without warning, she was met with cold grass on her cheek. The student had let go of her and was taking small steps away, a reaction that caused most others to do the same. Forcing herself into an alert state, Naoto rolled onto her backside and stared up at the apparition above her. That was no ghost… completely solid and standing was the prince, Yamato Takeru. Sword drawn, the wing-like cloth attached to his arms and back reacted to the breeze and his bright golden eyes stared through his bird-like helmet at the dark clothed student. A falcon with its claws out… How long had it been since Naoto last laid eyes on her Persona?

Breathing heavily, Naoto couldn't help but give a wry smile over Yamato's impressive stance. There were many times when she had fought side by side with this creature, her life always entrusted in him. With all that, why was everyone suddenly so cautious and afraid? Wasn't he beautiful?

Naoto winced as something hit her cheek like a very thick drop of water from the trees. But it wasn't that… As she raised a hand to wipe it off, she noticed her fingers had been blackened and stained with… oil? As she struggled to get the rest of it off of her cheek, another dripped onto the shoulder of her uniform. Looking up with irritation, she noticed that it was coming from none other than Yamato's helmet, specifically at the edge between metal and glass which gave the illusion of an elongated bird's beak, almost as if it were drooling. There was something off-putting about Yamato Takeru's appearance for sure… Areas in his clothing were stained and tattered, like a toy that had been played with for far too long.

The dark student reared back slowly, staring down the creature in front of him with an intimidated face. However, a Persona wasn't meant to have its own recognized thoughts. It was always under the control of its owner, so there was no reason for alarm. Supposedly.

All it took was one more step backwards and Yamato lunged forwards of his own accord, the edge of his helmet prying open and spilling quarts of oil behind him. Rows of deformed, scissor-like fangs gnashed from the helmet, his blade aimed at the male student. There was no sense in running from something so fast. In an instant, the sword impaled a great distance through the student's shoulder and sent a stream of red splashing down into the oily mix on the grass. Pinned up to a tree by Yamato's blade, the student quickly lost consciousness.

Screaming students fled from the forest just as quickly as the flocks from earlier had flown away, their stomachs building up in their necks from the atrocious sight. Naoto fell silent, her mind unable to wrap around what had just happened. This was a dream, wasn't it…? This… had to be…

As she watched Yamato vanish in an ethereal glow, the student's body dropped off of the blooded tree and hit the messy ground. The last thing Naoto heard was the sound of running footsteps and Touko yelling her name before she too lost all consciousness, her mind exhausted.

* * *

… Impossible…

The existence of such creatures relied on the metaphysical properties of the TV world, otherwise known as the Mayonaka realm. The murders that started two years ago occurred under complete stealth because of this world. No normal police force or Investigation Team could suspect an alternate reality and claim to be sane at the same time, it just didn't make sense. Actually, very little about the Mayonaka realm made sense, and thankfully none of its absurd reality made its way into the human world. Well, all except for one creature who, by the time he made it to our world, was practically human himself. But aside from that, the Mayonaka realm's contact with the human world was restricted to rainy nights, through a paranormal event called the Midnight Channel.

Rainy nights…

Such thoughts whirled through Naoto's mind as she slipped from dream state to awareness, her mind pressured by the experience she had witnessed… ten minutes ago? An hour? How long had it been? Where ever she was now, she felt comfortable. Eyes still closed, she turned her head and felt the brush of a pillow against her cheek. A bed… Perhaps she had been taken home? No… the air smelled different, and the ticking of the clock on the wall was too obnoxiously loud to be hers. Knowing the time would be good, though…

Forcing her eyes open, the stark white walls of Shinri's medical ward made Naoto's pupils shrink and a dormant headache return. However, eager to know the time, she fought against the sterile walls and sat up on her elbows. 5:17…

5:17! Naoto bolted upright, much to the surprise of the school nurse, and double-checked her watch. It had definitely been over two hours since school had ended, and her plans to meet Kanji after class were somewhere around the 4:30 mark. She huffed with worry and flicked open her phone. As expected, Kanji had sent a message in regards to her absence, sent half an hour ago… Her heart raced as her fingers flew over the keyboard, frantically replying with an excuse that would make even the most dishonest of men groan. What she had just done… Kanji didn't need to know about it. However, she had made a promise to see him and was going to keep her word, lest guilt plague her for the rest of the day.

"… Well, part of me wants to say I'm glad you're feeling better, but the other part of me thinks that it's not so healthy for you to wake up so fast" a voice spoke out from behind one of the desks; the school's nurse.

Naoto lowered her phone for a moment, looking up. The moment she was distracted from her phone, the dormant feeling of sickness and a strong headache came back. Her face contorted briefly. However, realizing that she wasn't going to be able to leave here so easily if she looked bad, she tried to suppress it. "I'm sorry, I just needed sleep."

"Yeah? Even if tired, not that many people just collapse before they can find a more suitable place to sleep" she spoke, looking concerned. It was true. Naoto could have easily made it home and slept since it was the end of the day. Fainting was the body's absolute last resort. Standing, the nurse walked over and put a hand to Naoto's forehead and checked her features. Surprisingly, despite the headache that Naoto refused to mention, she seemed perfectly well and rested.

"Huh… Well, do you feel fine?" she asked, to which Naoto simply nodded. There was no reason for alarm, then… Crossing her arms, the nurse sighed, "I suppose if you have a way to get home, then it's alright… but I wouldn't advise that you leave the school grounds alone, just in case" she continued like a lecture. It was understandable, though, as it was her job to ensure student safety. "Oh, by the way, it was your friend Miss Aoi who dropped you off here. She had to leave, but she said that… Sousei…? Would be waiting for you?"

"Ah- I have a ride home, then" said Naoto as she removed herself from the bed and found her shoes at the edge of the wall. Her vision hazed as she stood, but she didn't break her cover for a moment, "I should be going. Thank you for watching over me." She dipped into a tiny bow, the icing on the cake.

"Mm. Take care, then."

Naoto hurried out into the hallway and flipped her phone back open, finishing the text to Kanji and sending it without any more delay. However, she doubted he would still be at their rendezvous point… Even for someone with great patience, a meeting that's 30 minutes late without any notification or reply is simply bothersome.

Speed walking down to the front gate of the school, Naoto bee-lined for the parking lot. Amongst the few cars left over from staff members was a rather notable red motorcycle with the number "00" painted over its greatly decorated body. Several sections of its hood were in clear casing, with several pistons and unusual mechanics in plain view. It was a model you weren't going to see anywhere else.

"I'm sorry, I know you probably have better things to do right now…" Naoto spoke out to the wind, lifting herself onto the motorcycle and feeling momentary relief from her sickness due to the fresh air. Just as she had gotten on, the notification of a new message chimed on her phone. Thank goodness… Kanji was still at the coffee shop. Though she felt a twinge of guilt, all was well…

Without the turn of any key or squeeze of any handle, the bike seemed to turn itself on. As the dashboard lit up, another small screen activated and showed an audio waveform which moved to the sound of a masculine voice coming through on the speakers, "You're in a rush, it's fine."

"Thanks, Sousei…" Naoto spoke, pulling the motorcycle out of the parking lot and into the streets, heading for the highway. The one speaking from the bike was no radio signal; it was indeed the bike itself. Sousei Kurogami was his name and, through permission of the local police, he was accepted into the force as an individual capable of transportation, utilizing standard firearms, and of course, helping with investigative work. However, even with his own respected identity, he was considered the property of detective Shirogane as a present from the Kirijo Group to her specifically. It was nice having such connections.

* * *

"… Is this honestly what you should be doing right now?" spoke a voice from the bike after a couple minutes on the highway. It was great that Sousei wasn't simply a tool to be used and was capable of conscious thought… but that also meant that he could show concern.

"I'm taking the day off from work after this to catch up on my sleep. Worry not… I'll compile a record of my findings today and bring it in tomorrow to make this worth their time," Naoto replied with an answer that seemed to satisfy the machine's anxiety. Their trip to the coffee shop was, thankfully, not a long one and before Sousei could dish out more voices of reason, they had arrived.

Leaving Sousei in the back end parking lot where no other eyes could see, Naoto suspected that the machine might spend a little time on his own while waiting on her. For opportunities like this, Sousei was able to reconstruct himself into a human-like design. It was a daunting form with dark grey hair and red eyes with mechanical parts that couldn't be so easily covered up by regular human clothing. It was difficult for him to not draw attention to himself like that, but significantly better than driving around everywhere as a motorcycle. It was the lesser of the two evils…

Entering the coffee shop, Naoto quickly noticed Kanji who was waving her over from a small corner booth. It was then that she realized that there had been no time for her to return home and get back into a casual outfit. Instead, she had remained in her female school uniform, and prayed he wouldn't make any mention of it.

"You've… changed your preferences somewhat," was his first line.

The Gods would not deliver. Damnit, Kanji…

Ignoring the obvious comment on her appearance, Naoto sat down and looked up to him with an apologetic frown, "You've been waiting here for a while… I'm sorry for not informing you of my delay sooner."

He shook his head and pushed towards her a small sampling of treats he had ordered out of curiosity, "Ehh, it happens… We all know how busy you've been lately. S'cool."

Accepting one of the mini-donuts from the tray, Naoto smiled, "I truly am happy to hear from one of you again… and not just that, but the fact that you are actually here. Do you have family that you're visiting?"

Kanji tilted his head down, a grim look collecting on his features. That's right… how had she not noticed? There was a look of edginess on his face the moment she stepped into the coffee shop, and she knew he couldn't have been angry over her lateness. He wasn't like that… This look… it was as if he had been brooding over something the whole time he was waiting for her.

"Kind of, but it's not like that… Actually, I'm kind of stuck in this city right now. I've been here for a couple of weeks, bunkin' with a cousin of mine at his apartment…" he said, drawing out each sentence as if leading her on to some big reveal at the end. Naoto's mind pieced his clues together, all the while wondering why he looked so forlorn.

"Why, did something happen at home…?" she asked the obvious question and the only piece she couldn't seem to make any assumptions over. Everything seemed fine when she left Inaba, though it had been nearly a year.

"… Ain't got anyone to live with," he answered, dipping his gaze down into his folded hands.

That was the reveal. By his method of avoiding saying it outright, Naoto could only assume that it was something that no person ever wanted to have to say. The Kanji she once knew to be completely straightforward and loud was now hiding his full expression behind his hands. He had been without a father for many years now and was left in the care of his mother. Although strong and dependable, she too had brought Naoto to question her age many times, and could have easily been mistaken to be his grandmother. And so, by his words, Naoto had to wonder… where had his mother gone? The detective kept her lips sealed, not wishing to ask any questions that would pull the words out of his mouth. Those were his words to say.

"Yeah… she's gone. Two months ago…" he spoke through his fingers, "… D'unno if it was old age or what, but… I just couldn't wake her up that morning."

Naoto's shoulders dropped, unable to think of any words to say. The little donut in her hand suddenly seemed quite unappealing and she lowered it onto a napkin, stomach clenching. The headache that she thought had disappeared from the fresh air returned, and she lowered her gaze in agitation.

"I don't get it…" he looked up, a small glaze of moisture apparent in his eyes, "She was fine… I swear, she went out jogging the day before n' everything. It just… happened without any warning."

Trauma? Poisoning? A sudden cardiac failure…? It didn't matter. What mattered was that the boy in front of Naoto now shared with her the pain of being an orphan, and clearly with no other immediate family in Inaba. Naoto was lucky enough to have her grandfather and Yakushiji. If Kanji's cousin in this city was the closest relative that he had, then his family must have been quite spread out. The existence of their lives in this city was now in complete duality. For her, this city meant opportunity, but for Kanji, it was a cage. He had nowhere else to go… it was the complete opposite.

"You're… not alone here…" Naoto said quietly, struggling to pick her words. In most cases when it came to confronting people, she was skilled in wiring her brain around everything a person said, pulling out facts and finding contradictions in their claims. She was more alert than ever when it came to gathering information from someone and knowing just the right things to say to get it. But here… right now… she was dumbfounded. She continued, "I don't want you to think that I'm terribly busy… If you ever need someone to talk to, I will always have the time. Always… Okay?"

Kanji gulped down the last bit of visible sorrow and cleared his eyes, nodding, "Yeah, I know… Honestly, you bein' here is the first good thing that's happened to me in a while. Thanks…"

Naoto sat back in her seat and nodded. At the same time, she would only bring up this topic if Kanji felt the need to talk about it. There were some things in life that couldn't be forgotten or ignored, but at the very least, she could help put his mind on other things. And he would have to, anyways, considering that his entire life was likely turned upside down by this event. Naoto closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the sweet scent of the coffee shop and tried to create her own sort of distraction. The headache was getting bad… and she couldn't shake away an extremely off feeling. Like there was a hole in her heart… Perhaps she was just feeling sympathy. It had been a long time since the death of her own parents and she herself was extremely young then, but such a feeling of loss couldn't possibly be affected by age.

Her eyes slid open slowly at first, and then snapped into a wide gaze straight at Kanji's shoulder. White… flappy… sleeves. Encasing a human-like figure, something rested on the seat next to Kanji and hugged into his shoulder without him even noticing. Kanji couldn't help but give an odd stare as Naoto rubbed her eyes and look again. She could have sworn she just saw something there… but whatever it was then was now gone. "That… wasn't…" she muttered without any logic, "What was that against you?"

Kanji looked over at his arm and shrugged, "Nothin'…?"

Naoto leaned forwards and squinted her eyes. There was definitely nothing there anymore. "I… must be seeing things. I'm sorry…" she said uneasily, sitting back.

Kanji was just about to brush it off with a simple 'don't worry about it' until she did it again, widened eyes locked onto a target somewhere in the distance. Whatever it was, she was so entranced by it that she looked ready to stand and leave the table, but once again stopped. It disappeared again, and Naoto sat down… Kanji looked around the shop with confusion, "Hey… you feel alright?"

"I swear, Tatsumi-kun, there's a ghost in here or I'm going mad," she answered with a perfectly straight tone, completely convinced that she had seen a lab coated apparition wandering around the café.

"What did it look like?" he questioned.

Naoto realized that what she was seeing couldn't have been possible… This thing that kept catching her eye looked strikingly similar to herself. A doppelganger… Of course, this was not the first time that she had seen such a figure. The inhabitants of the Mayonaka realm, otherwise known as Shadows, were the product of human negativity that, during their most stable state, took on the same appearance as their human host. Over time they would degrade into madness and become lost beasts, unable to find acceptance, but their existence was restricted to the TV world.

"Me…" she answered as a horrible feeling swirled in her gut. Yamato… a Persona… Such a thing shouldn't have been possible to see in this world either. She was disturbed by the thought that Shadows could exist here too. It was completely illogical… Holding her hands over her face, she tried to shake away the thought, "I don't… feel well at all."

"Have some water. I'll get you home, alright?" he said as he offered his glass, leaning close with concern.

Naoto winced, but took a sip of water anyways, "I can get myself back, its oka-"

"Enough of that, alright? Look… I can tell. You're probably like me and slept, what, two hours last night? You're not well… so I'm getting you home," he quickly replied, "I can ride a bike, it's s'okay."

Naoto blinked, raising a brow. That was surprisingly perceptive of Kanji… He must have heard her come in on the motorcycle considering how noisy it could be. Even something as technologically advanced as Sousei refused to purr like a kitten. He was more of a lion.

"… Thank you, Tatsumi-kun."


	3. Chapter 3

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

**_Warning: This chapter gets ever so faintly limey, but nothing explicit. S'all good._**

* * *

The drive back was mostly silent save for Naoto's quick directions. Unless she gave any order to reveal himself, Sousei would remain quiet and as far as Kanji could tell, he was just as extremely elaborate motorcycle. The boy was already ecstatic enough to have Naoto hugging behind him, her arms wrapped around his sides for support. It was just an added bonus to be able to ride something this amazing looking. Naoto kept her eyes shut throughout most of the ride, having sworn that if she didn't, she was going to start seeing her doppelganger car surfing on the highway at some point.

As they got off of the main road and into the residential area, Kanji noticed that most of the buildings in the area were… rather overly luxurious and large. For an apartment dweller, he had to admit, he was envious of the folk that lived in this neck of the city.

"That one right there," Naoto pointed out to one of the houses. House…? No… that would be an understatement. It was definitely an estate. Even though they weren't exchanging glances, Naoto turned her head away and tried to appear modest.

Kanji pulled up on the driveway and stared upwards, failing to hold a poker face. It was significantly larger than the home Naoto had back in the sticks, "Geez… you were really prepared to leave Inaba…"

Naoto stepped off the bike and shook her head, "This place is… well… We've always had this place…" she spoke quietly, "I was born here."

Kanji looked over with surprise, "Oh… wait! You mean you're from Yagokoro?" He felt a little silly for not realizing that sooner. Of course, it made sense… Where had she lived before she even came to Inaba? She had said that she was moving to the city, yet it didn't even click in his mind that she might have just been moving back home. He laughed slightly in his head.

"Thank you again for the ride," Naoto spoke, "Though I neglected to ask before… How do you plan on getting home now?"

The laugh in Kanji's head immediately subsided when he realized how late it was and how far away he had driven to get Naoto back to her home. It would be quite a walk to the bus stop, and he'd have to pay a ridiculous amount for the taxis they had in this area. He checked his pockets… and unfortunately didn't find a whole lot of spare change, "… Crud."

Naoto looked over her shoulder at the estate and then back to Kanji, laughing softly, "It's fine if you need to stay. We have more guest rooms than necessary." He could believe it. "As thanks for getting me home safely, perhaps? And in the morning I'll make sure that you get to school on time."

Kanji's heart tickled with delight. Though it was unorthodox, he couldn't just refuse her hospitality. Making sure that Sousei was secured for the night, they entered the house and Kanji was greeted by a familiar sight at the coat racks. Hung up amongst all the rest was her old navy coat with the white trim and hung above it rested the buckled cap that she had been so attached to.

"Such nostalgia…" he mentioned as he put up his own coat next to it.

Naoto nodded with a soft laugh, "Ah… I can never seem to throw things away… Though it's still good in the winter, it doesn't quite fit me like it used to." It was the lengthened hair, for sure. It threw the whole image off.

Kanji's eyes glanced over everything he could find, infinitely curious about the place she had grown up in. He could easily tell that it was her environment that had molded her into such a formal person. Naoto stepped up the stairs, leading him along. "I'm sorry… I would give you a tour of sorts but… I'm certain that the both of us are quite tired. Perhaps in the morning if there is time?" she suggested, noticing how curious he seemed.

He nodded, "Yeah, I'm good to crash right now…"

Walking down a hallway, she stopped and nodded to one of the doors at the end, "That's my room. If you need anything, just call." Of course, he would hate to do so, knowing how tired she was… but sure enough, he nodded again. "And this one will be yours for the night. Is it fine?" she asked, opening the door to a nearby room. Kanji rubbed his eyes a little. This was supposed to be a guest room? The bed was king sized and it could have easily housed a second bed with still plenty of space left over. "It's almost too much" he answered, eyes wide.

"S-sorry…" she dipped her head down.

"Hey, hey, I said 'almost'. This is just fine," he answered, stepping in and stretching out a bit. Despite its size, the room was quite simple and comfortable. He relaxed immediately.

Naoto took the door handle and smiled, "Alright then, sleep well."

Kanji waved back, sending his good nights back to her and eagerly waited for the door to close. The moment it did, he jumped onto the oversized bed and squished his face into the pillows, legs kicking slightly. Could this night possibly get any better? He assured himself that it could not.

* * *

What a terribly exhausting day it had been…

Naoto returned to her own room and walked over to a body mirror. Leaning forward, she checked her pupils, throat and overall features for any sign of sickness. Her face felt hot, but that could have been due to her nerves and stress more than anything else. Perhaps that's all it was… She contemplated the possibility of missing school for a day if she wasn't feeling any better by the morning. Folding her arms, she questioned why she didn't simply spared Kanji some change for a taxi. She could have, yet for some reason she felt better in knowing that he was close by tonight. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she was nervous… or maybe she was feeling fear… over the things that she had seen today. Even though she had not made any mention of Personas or Shadows to him, Naoto knew that Kanji would at least understand her if she did. She stared blankly at her reflection in the mirror and sighed, hands rising to unbutton her shirt.

Without any warning, Naoto noticed as another set of hands appeared in her reflection. One rested over her forehead while another held onto her shoulder, tugging her back slightly. Following the hands was a voice behind Naoto which echoed in a horribly shrill G major voice, a tone that caused her heart to skip a beat.

"You've got a fever."

Naoto whirled around in alarm, the tip of her nose pressing against that of an individual who stood at perfectly equal height with her and was garbed in an oversized lab coat. Her eyes locked onto the wide, intense golden eyes of the other, caught in their entrancing glow. It took her not more than a second to identify the intruder: it was her Shadow.

Naoto let out a pitched yell as she grabbed the hand off of her forehead and thrust her palm into the Shadow's chest to push it away. Surprisingly, physical contact was actually made and the doppelganger stumbled backwards, its long sleeves flapping like a bird trying to correct its fall.

"H-heeyy..!" it shouted back, gripping onto a bed post for support, "Why're you being that way? I was looking all over for y-" the creature was interrupted by the click of a gun, the metal barrel pointed dead center on its forehead. The Shadow froze in its spot, and all that could be heard in the room was Naoto's rapid breathing. Caught in a deadlock, the two held a wild stare at each other, listening as the sound of footsteps hurried towards the door. "Naoto…!?" called a voice from beyond the door. It was Kanji's. Thank goodness… he must have heard her yell.

"Tatsumi-kun, help!" she called back, ordering him into the room. Quickly letting himself in, Kanji was stunned by the scene in front of him. It looked like Naoto had the upper hand here, but if this creature was truly her Shadow then nothing could be assumed. "T-the hell is that doing here…!?" he spoke, his eyes only leaving the Shadow for an instant as he tried to find some sort of weapon within the room. Unfortunately, this was not his furniture to use.

The Shadow slowly lowered itself down onto its knees, Naoto's aim following its descent. A pair of long sleeves rose up to cover the creature's face, eyes dampening, "S-she's being mean…!" it uttered in that ear scraping tone. Naoto winced.

"What are you doing here? … You belong in the TV," Naoto remarked in a way that demanded answers. Not only was she tired and unwell, she was now thoroughly irritated.

The Shadow poked its eyes up through the cloth, glowing orbs blinking with curiosity, "This isn't Mayonaka…?"

Kanji and Naoto exchanged glances at each other before looking back to the Shadow. Was it just as confused as they were? "No..." Naoto resumed, shaking her head, "How did you get here?"

"I… I didn't do anything. Really…! I'm just here." The more they showed their aggression on it, the more the Shadow seemed to sob pitifully. However, Naoto had already begun to assume what had gone wrong. It was painfully obvious…

Shadow Extraction… the hint was right there in its very name. Had her Shadow been extracted from her, causing all this physical discomfort and feeling of loss? As she thought about it, she was able to confirm that indeed, she couldn't sense Yamato's presence within her anymore. Even if unable to summon him in the human world, she was always aware of his existence in her… That was the hole in her heart… Her Persona was gone.

Or at least, in its more regal form, it was gone. Shadows and Persona were two sides of the same coin, the same being essentially. The creature crying in front of her now was in fact Yamato, but devolved into its Shadow form. Never before had any of the Investigation Team assumed that a Persona could degrade back into a Shadow, since it took a realization of the heart to bring them into their enlightened forms. Naoto was certain that everything she learned about herself two years ago would remain important to her forever… but alas, here was the Shadow again. To her surprise, though, it didn't seem to be as hostile as last time.

Naoto lowered her gun, causing Kanji to tense up in case the Shadow decided to spring into an attack while it had the chance. But no, it remained on the floor in a very non-hostile state, whimpering no less. If this thing truly had any ill intentions, then it did a great job at covering it up.

"Is it still you…? Sukuna Hikona, Yamato Takeru?" Naoto questioned, staring down at the sobbing figure. The Shadow responded with a short nod, brushing one of its sleeves past its wet eyes. Naoto remained alert, "But you're in this form... Why?"

"I can't go back, it's too difficult…" it answered, the ear-pinching shrill in its voice softening as it calmed down somewhat, "I guess… if this isn't Mayonaka, then I can see why."

Kanji threw the question, "And why's that?"

The Shadow reached up and plucked at its cheek skins a little bit, "This body, it's the most human thing that I've got… I can't hold myself together as anything else. Maybe that's why…?"

Naoto relaxed a little. While this was still an unfortunate situation, it explained much of what she had already known from another Shadow creature, Teddie. He was only capable of coming into existence in this world under a human guise… though his inner-workings were forever a mystery. But if this was simply a form that her Persona had to take in order to survive in this world, then she had some reason to trust it. Still, it wasn't meant to be here.

"Right… Then what are we supposed to do about it? Naoto can't just stay here forever," Kanji spoke up.

At the use of that name, both the original and her double stared up at Kanji with questioning faces.

"I mean—the other Naoto… uh, Shadow Naoto. Erf…" Kanji fumbled with his words. Any variant of her name just sounded either too long or disrespectful to both of them "Uhn… Guess you'll just be 'Shadow' or something, then… Kage?"

The Shadow perked up at the newly acquired name and playfully slapped its sleeves together in a small clap. That seemed to do the trick. Naoto sighed with relief, glad that Kanji had made a solid detour from using her name for someone else. "We have to do something about this… But whatever it is that we can do, I doubt it would be wise to get it done tonight. We both should have been fast asleep by now…" answered Naoto, looking back to Kage, "And this… I think it's safe to say that I cannot let Grandpa or Yakushiji know of this."

"So you're going to keep it here in your room or something?" Kanji questioned with a look of concern on his face. How could they simply assume that it would be alright, keeping a Shadow hostage in the house? Even more, was it really safe to sleep near it? Then again, it wasn't as if they had any better options…

Naoto sighed, "I can grab a spare futon… and perhaps keep the door locked. I don't suppose you have any better ideas, Tatsumi-kun?"

Kanji slowly shook his head, "No… but. If I ever hear you screaming, I demand permission to kick down the door. 'Cause I will."

Naoto laughed softly, "If so… But I think it'll be fine. We're already aware that not all Shadows are hostile; Teddie being the case in point. I'm sure we'll have it returned to where it came from soon enough" she noted, tapping the side of her head with an index finger.

April 10th, 2013, Wednesday

A pair of glowing eyes stared up from the spread out futon, glancing repeatedly between the ceiling and the sleeping woman on the bed next to it. It was the middle of the night already, but Kage had made very little effort in putting itself to sleep. No matter how plush the futon felt, there was nothing more comfortable in appearance than the large bed that towered next to it. The little Shadow ducked its nose under the covers, eyes leering cunningly at Naoto's bed sheets. Making a small, silent roll towards the bed, Kage escaped the futon and pressed itself up into the bed sheets from the side. Being as stealthy as possible, the Shadow slid comfortably into a spooning position behind Naoto, arms clung around her. This was… perhaps… the third time this night that it had tried this maneuver, and each time was the same result.

Naoto stirred awake once more and let out a low groan, turning to face Kage who had a rather content look on its face. "No…" she remarked, an order. The Shadow shuffled and put on a pouty look, trying to weasel its way into staying on her bed through cuteness alone. Alas, its attempts were in vain, and Naoto shuffled towards the edge of the bed, leaving Kage with no room but to fall off and return to the futon. Closing her eyes again, Naoto was quick to fall back asleep, but Kage simply couldn't do with this sort of bedding. It sat upright and fumbled with its thumbs, struggling to think of a solution.

Ah… of course, surely this wasn't the only room in this house. Why did the little Shadow have to be confined to one as uncomfortable as this? Looking towards the door, Kage closed its eyes and literally seeped out of the futon, its body taking on the form of a viscous black sludge that crept along the floor in complete silence. Escaping from underneath the locked door, Kage pressed on to the next closest room, following the edge of the wall until it found the underside of another doorway. Sliding inside, a pair of golden orbs within the sludge stared curiously around the room. Another bed…! And it looked just as comfortable.

As Kage rematerialized, its added height was able to catch sight of another individual resting in the bed it intended to claim. The Shadow stepped forwards in an almost comical sneaking pose, each step exaggerated beyond any reason. In this bed was the boy from before… the one with the brightly coloured hair. He looked… a little gruffer than Naoto, but a sleeping buddy was a sleeping buddy. Kage slid into the same position it had tried many times already this night, and thankfully, Kanji proved to be a much deeper sleeper. In its own mind, Kage murmured with delight, eyes closed and finally ready to sleep.

… But something was still preventing the Shadow from resting, and only just now did it notice it. Some sort of feeling… Was this something that could only be felt in the human world? It was an entirely indescribable feeling, and it was causing Kage's cheeks to glow almost as radiantly as its eyes. It shuffled slightly, nose brushed against the back of Kanji's neck and its eyes narrowed with curiosity. The smell of this… human… Why was it suddenly so intoxicating? As a Shadow, Kage felt little other emotion for humans except that they were something to satisfy its hunger. However, as a Shadow that had been enlightened into the status of a Persona, it shared a much greater bond with Naoto that allowed it, at times, to feel much of what she felt as well.

"Does she like you…?" Kage whispered quietly to itself, a raised finger trailing down the bumps of Kanji's spine. The boy was sleeping like a complete log, obviously catching up on the rest he missed the night before. Kage simply couldn't resist this… Lifting itself over Kanji, the Shadow glanced up and down at the sleeping figure, a coy smile washing over its face. Just this one thing, and then it would be happy, that's all…

Lowering itself with closed eyes, Kage gently pressed its lips to Kanji's and brought its sleeves around his head, holding him in a warm embrace. The Shadow's breath faltered for a moment as a twinge of excitement fluttered through its heart, causing it to grasp its fingers into Kanji's hair. Such an action was enough to finally stir Kanji awake…

…

"Ah… Naoto…" Kanji murmured into the kiss, quite unaware and still in a half-asleep state. Taking advantage of his parted lips, the Shadow furthered the kiss and dipped its tongue into the boy's mouth, breathing steadily. Kanji's toes curled in response… Was she really doing this to him…? It had to be a dream… but the girl in front of him was definitely… unmistakably…

Kage's eyes opened for a brief moment, catching the boy's own gaze. Kanji's eyes suddenly widened as the golden glow reflected back at him, snapping him into full wakefulness. Closing his mouth, Kanji shuffled back into the sheets and was about to push the Shadow off, but Kage's hands had already traveled down and gripped Kanji's wrists, holding him still. A small string of saliva linked their lower lips, and the Shadow was obviously eager for more of it.

_Kick it off… kick it off…!_

Kanji's mind raced. He was half paralyzed with fear, and half entranced by the glowing eyes that kept him from blinking. This wasn't right at all… yet, at the same time, he didn't want to imagine what would happen if he refused this creature of what it wanted… With the Shadow straddled over him, Kage had the advantage, and Kanji had little choice.

As the Shadow trailed itself down lower, Kanji realized soon enough that, perhaps, this wasn't all that undesirable…

* * *

Morning dawned and the smell of frying eggs filled the hallways, a fragrance coming from none other than the kitchen. Naoto gripped the handle of the frying pan as she stirred the egg mixture into a fluffy scramble, listening to the sound of the news coming from the TV in the background. It seemed that the commotion at school yesterday didn't go unnoticed… but how could it? Looking up from the pan, she recalled the events that she had hoped for the longest time were just a dream. The spray of blood on the ground and the oily stains on her uniform…

_A thorough investigation of the scene produced no clear evidence of malice or gang-related activity. One student, currently unidentified, has been taken into medical care for a burning shoulder wound. Students are advised to keep alert during after school hours and…_

The program carried on, and Naoto curled her nose. Unidentified? The student was wearing a school uniform. Couldn't they have at least disclosed where he had come from? Just as Naoto returned her focus on the scrambled eggs in front of her, a piercing mechanical sound rang in from the doorway. It was a sound she recognized as one of Sousei's, the sound of him reconstructing from one form into another. Sure enough, the door flew open and a humanized Sousei volleyed into the room with a mechanical arm outstretched, the end of it constructed into a gun-like apparatus. Looking from side to side, he noticed Naoto's bewildered face in the kitchen and charged over, standing in front of her with his aim pointed towards the stairs.

Naoto pressed herself against the kitchen counter, "S-Sousei, I'm trying to make breakfast."

Without looking, Sousei's human arm reached over her shoulder and he blindly turned the stove off. Raising it to the side of his head, he seemed to be processing information through his various sensors at a rapid pace. Naoto quickly looked up as a thud was heard from upstairs, which quickly escalated into an explosion of noise.

Sousei's crimson eyes blinked, "Target confirmed, Shadow. Codename, Amatsu Mikaboshi. Variant, cancerous, host unknown. Treatment, paralysis and stabilization through system 17." He spoke under his breath in technical terms as the mechanics on his arm altered and reloaded, ready to fire at the first thing to come down the stairs.

Well… perhaps the second. The first thing to come running down the stairs was Kanji in nothing more than his boxers, yelling in horror with the rest of his clothing hugged in his arms.

"Here!" Sousei yelled to him from the kitchen.

Kanji looked over at the unfamiliar face. Who the heck was that? No, no, this wasn't the time to think. The boy leaped towards the counter and ducked low, hiding himself behind the robot's legs. Naoto's glance at Kanji was brief, half because of the fact that he was practically naked, and half because whatever was after him was now coming into view.

The Shadow slid down the stairs on its arms, half of its body in solid form while the remaining lower half took on the appearance of dark, black mud. Swirls of black and white covered its shoulders which lead down to its bright cyan fingertips, and the trail left behind it gave off an otherworldly purple fog. Lifting its golden head, the five prongs that pointed outward from it resembled a mix between a mantis head and a gleaming star.

"What is that…!?" Naoto gripped her head and seethed with agitation as a deafening voice screamed for help from the direction of the Shadow. Kanji looked to her with worry, but he didn't seem as bothered… Could he not hear it?

"Kage, I think…" Kanji answered, watching from the space between Sousei's legs, "And who's this dude…?"

"Generation 3 Anti-Shadow Weapon Type R-00 Genesis," the android spoke without missing a beat, "Or Sousei Kurogami, whichever you fancy."

All at once, the Shadow lunged forwards and Sousei fired from his arm, catching the hostile creature in the air with an invisible pulse that sent it flying backwards and into the chairs of the dining room. Before it could right itself up, Sousei's arm reloaded with different ammunition and quickly shot in three bursts. The bullet-like shots plunged into the creature's wrists and neck as if being fired into molasses. Underneath its gelatinous skin, the bullets mechanically unfurled into rings which, upon resurfacing, clasped around the Shadow's wrists and neck like collars and gave off a paralyzing shock. As the monster tumbled to the ground and writhed, Naoto clenched her teeth together. It was in pain…

Stepping forward, Sousei raised his weapon to the Shadow one more time. His other arm was immediately grabbed by Naoto who pulled him back forcefully, her voice shaking, "Don't kill it…!"

"I didn't intend to… This Shadow is merely unstable, and if sedated properly, it can be detained and studied," he said, gun shifting to a narcotic gear, "Much more useful."

Naoto sighed but looked reluctant. If Kanji was right about this being Kage… "I can't let you do that either…" she spoke quietly. As it was, however, the Shadow was definitely hostile. Ignoring her pleas, Sousei stepped towards the groaning creature and kneeled down to its level, pressing the tip of his gun to its neck and injected an agent that almost immediately caused the Shadow to stop its twisting. Naoto's features seemed to relax as well.

"Then… let me know how you plan on dealing with it when you can…" Sousei spoke up as he stood, giving the creature its space.

"Mhn…" she nodded, feeling a little dazed by the whole experience. "Hey, Tatsumi-kun… I'm able to believe that this is Kage for one reason..." she mentioned, looking to Kanji who finally had a moment to get his pants on, "When I woke up, I couldn't find my Shadow in my room. Do you have any idea of where it went...?"

Indeed… the Shadow had spent a great deal of the night with Kanji. By the time Naoto had woken up, Kage was still with him and… doing… … rather unmentionable things …

Kanji quickly turned his flushing face away, shoulders shrugging, "I-I'unno… It's a Shadow, isn't it? Kage's the only Shadow in this house right now… S-so, obviously…" his words stuttered nervously, "That's gotta be all there is to it, right…?"

"It felt good… Tatsumi-kun…" a voice spoke from the direction of the Shadow. Sousei stepped back as the oily skin which surrounded the creature seemed to slowly dissolve, revealing underneath the human-shaped body of Kage which lay sprawled upon the floor. Just the body and nothing more. Its short, dark navy hair was a disheveled mess, and its eyes stared up with an intoxicated daze from the sedative.

As it lay naked on its side, Naoto was able to deduce two surprising things. One, Kage was apparently male, and two, because of that, she could tell that he was still visibly aroused. Kanji placed his hand over his face and tossed the Shadow his shirt, figuring Kage needed it more than he did right now. Naoto like-wise looked away, right into Kanji's eyes with an intense glare.

"What did you do to it…?" she asked in a low voice, causing Kanji's shoulders to drop. Naoto wasn't one to get angry… or at least, she wasn't the kind of person who'd show it. When she wanted answers, however, she quickly became demanding.

"He put it… in me…" spoke the little Shadow, breathing heavily with a smile upon his face, "I learned so much last night, host-kun… But … I don't think he's ever done it before. You'd probably have to be patient with him…"

The silence in the room was so prolonged that it wouldn't have been any surprise to see a tumbleweed bounce by. It was broken by Sousei, who let out a small whistle and turned towards the door awkwardly, pretending he hadn't heard a thing. Target… pretty much stabilized.

"He's lying… right?" Naoto finally spoke up, staring at Kanji with eyes that pleaded him to say 'yes', but this wasn't the time to be dishonest. Their very friendship was on a thin line now and hiding the truth would only make it worse.

Kanji lowered his head, "N-No… Look, I ain't gonna beat around the bush… I was seduced by your Shadow last night a-and…" a trickle of sweat fell down his forehead, "…I didn't know what else to do..." Kanji could feel something in his throat sinking. Perhaps it was his dignity.

In silence, Naoto slowly turned her gaze away from Kanji and rested a hand to her forehead. Walking towards her Shadow, she passed by a couch in the dining room and took a throw blanket off of its back rest, wrapping it around Kage who had at least put on Kanji's shirt. Naturally, it was too big for him, but that meant it fit just right. The Shadow flapped his sleeves under the blanket contently, and Naoto remained kneeled at his side as complicated thoughts stirred through her mind. "Why…?" she whispered to herself, which caught the Shadow's attention.

"'Cause you wanted it…" he answered into her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. That wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear.

Kanji's voice once again spoke up from behind them, "I was scared… alright? He's a damn Shadow… When a thing like that comes crawlin' into your room, what else are you supposed to think? Could'a killed me if I didn't do what it wanted… Sorry…" he attempted to flip the blame. But what was done was done.

Naoto stood upright again and shook her head, "We can forget that this happened… You have somewhere to be and so do I. I had breakfast made but… it seems like I'm going to have to redo that," as she spoke, she turned to the stove and the pile of scrambled egg which had cooled down on the frying pan. Sighing, she looked down at her Shadow. "Go get dressed…"

Kanji watched as Kage excitedly stood and ran back upstairs to get his original clothes, and then looked down at the frying pan, "They… look okay," he mentioned softly, noting that the egg didn't seem so bad. It could be heated again, and Sousei had turned off the stove quickly enough so that it didn't burn underneath too much.

Naoto was glad that the topic had been successfully changed at least. Opening the fridge, she got out another container of eggs, "I'll have the first batch. But for you, I insist that you let me make something more appealing." Kanji was honestly surprised at her ability to forgive and forget. Unfortunately, he wasn't entirely off the hook…

"So… Those are your preferences…," she added on as she cracked open a couple more eggs, causing Kanji to nearly trip over his own legs from the abruptness. Her tone of voice was a joking one, yet all he could do was return a nervous chuckle. She was hiding her anger, he could feel it…

* * *

The group of three silently sat around the dining room table, forks in hand and the fresh smell of breakfast perfuming through the air. After a stressful morning, the egg was a welcomed addition to the day. Modestly dining, Kanji looked up from his plate and noticed that it was only he and Naoto who were partaking in the meal. Kage sat still in his seat, watching the other two with analytical eyes and making awkward attempts at holding the fork in his hand for eating.

Kanji sat up and swallowed, "Don't you know how to use that?"

Kage averted his eyes from Kanji, looking back down to his plate. The fluffy yellow egg screamed back into his golden eyes, but the Shadow simply didn't understand what the point of this activity was. They were putting it in their mouths… and… making it disappear? Kage finally tried out of curiosity, taking a mound of scrambled egg onto his fork and placed it in his mouth, blinking quietly.

Naoto looked up and watched as the Shadow sat there with a perplexed look on his face, forcefully chewing. She motioned to her throat with her finger, making a sliding motion from the top downwards, "Swallow it, like that."

Kage made a grumpy expression as he tried to understand, and eventually realized that the motion for ingesting saliva was the same for getting foodstuffs down, and did so. His face contorted as it slid down, and he quickly produced a disgusted look at the feeling.

Naoto sighed quietly, "Doesn't it taste good…?"

The Shadow paused with its tongue stuck out and looked back to her, "… Taste?"

"You know? ... Salty, sweet, bitter… Taste," she answered back. How was one supposed to describe what taste was? It was a sense that she assumed most creatures with tongues were able to register. The Shadow slowly shook its head, unable to understand. Naoto folded her arms, "Well… that is unfortunate. I can only imagine how strange it would feel to eat something yet be unable to taste any of it… That's the joy of food."

Kage nodded, his expression going sour as the egg refused to cooperate with his system. Lowering his head down onto the table, he murmured with irritation and wrapped his arms around his stomach. Leaning towards him, Naoto asked quietly if he was going to be alright, to which Kage slowly nodded.

"Huh… I guess Shadows don't need to eat, then… Kind'a like Sousei out there," Kanji pointed out, finishing off the rest of his breakfast. He would happily take the rest of Kage's if he wasn't going to finish it.

Naoto's look of concern remained, "So you don't feel hungry?"

"I do…" Kage answered, understanding that term at least. As the disturbance in his gut settled, he sat up straight and pushed the fork and plate away from him, giving it a look of resentment. "I am hungry…" he said, but whatever this slop was, it wasn't going to satisfy anything.

Kanji took Kage's plate and enjoyed his second helping while Naoto sat back, her own plate empty. Great… She could only assume what Shadows ate considering the events that occurred two years ago. She feared the answer, but threw it out there anyways, "Right… So what satisfies your hunger?"

"Humans," Kage answered. How curt.

"And that's not going to happen. You're going to have to come up with some alternative if we can't get you back into my mind soon," she answered down at the Shadow. Kage's eyes went large and puppy-like for a moment, but no amount of begging was going to make her change her mind on that. Naoto turned her attention to Kanji, "Unfortunately though, that's something we're going to have to deal with later… You have school, and I have to hand in a report to the station. Kage's going to have to stay here and be patient…" she said, looking back to the Shadow, "… Who I hope will actually wait patiently in my room this time."

Kage sunk into his seat and made an O-K symbol with his thumb and index finger, a promise that was going to be hard to believe.

"Y'sure about just leaving him here…? He could just run off… Or what if your Grandpa finds him?" questioned Kanji, who only at this point realized that he had not seen either of the estate's men yet.

"They both left for work over an hour ago. We're all rather early risers in this house," she answered. Even at his age, Naoto's grandfather made an active contribution to the law. "As for leaving him on his own… honestly, I worry," she added on as she stood up to take care of the dishes. She would have asked Sousei to watch over Kage if not for the fact that Sousei was their mode of transportation, and there was no way that they were going to bring the Shadow along. The bike only fit two people anyways.

Naoto and Kanji made their last preparations to leave, which included getting Kage back to Naoto's room and shutting the door with crossed fingers. Naoto hoped that her trip would be quick enough so that the Shadow wouldn't be alone for long. It was like trying to house train a puppy… Indeed, school wasn't going to be an option for her today.


	4. Chapter 4

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

_Note: Heey, what? An update on Monday? That's right! Animus will be going bi-weekly as of today. You can now expect Chapter updates on both Monday and Friday. Sweet cuppin' cakes! As always, thanks to my regular readers and reviewers for keeping up with this. You guys are making it happen. ^^_

* * *

"Y'know, I'm surprised I didn't realize it sooner. I just figured you grew a love for bikes or something, but even then… this is kind of… uh… uhm, damn, what's the word…" Kanji fumbled over the appropriate description for Sousei as they re-traced their route down the highway and back to Kanji's apartment.

"Extravagant?" Naoto tried, barely turning her head. Despite the awkward start, Naoto felt much better this morning and was sure that it was safe enough for her to drive this time. Part of her figured that she just needed the rest, but another part theorized that it had been Kage draining her energy until he developed an appropriate body for this world. Or perhaps both. In response to her statement, Sousei emitted a nervous laugh from the speakers.

Kanji nodded, "Yeah, I guess that does it justice… Why do you have something like this, though? Whatever he said he was… an 'Anti-Shadow Weapon'?" he questioned, the title sounding mighty familiar.

"You should remember Labrys and Aigis from a ways back, yes? During the tournament incident," Naoto reminded, "Sousei is quite literally their older brother, a model type that ceased production once the Kirijo Group developed the means of creating more life-like androids. They created Labrys afterwards, whose real appearance can easily be disguised under clothing. Sousei's… not so much."

"So they started with… autobots," Kanji deduced, which brought a small laugh out of Naoto.

"Yes, essentially. He's an amazing piece of engineering either way," she noted, not wishing to demean Sousei for being so outdated, "As for why I have him… He was a present from Kirijo-san herself. We were on favorable terms while I was still in Inaba and she insisted that as a Persona-user, I would always require some sort of assistance in case the worst happened. So when I set back out to Yagokoro City, she worried enough to give me one of their unused weapons."

"Geez… I didn't know you were still hanging around with that lot," Kanji answered. The Kirijo Group and almost all related events had left his mind after the P-1 Grand Prix. For his argument, however, he had thought that the entire thing was a dream up until the end. "Speakin' of hand-me-downs, though… Uh, sorry, Sousei," he apologized as the motorcycle honked at that word, "… I know we should be thinking of a way to get your Shadow back to where he belongs, but in case Kage ain't going anywhere soon, y'should kind of consider how you're going to take care of him, yeah?"

Naoto nodded slowly, "Yes… and?"

"Well, he seemed fine in my shirt this morning. I don't know if you've got a limited supply of clothes or anything, but I've got a ton of junk that doesn't fit that great anymore. Might help?" he offered, "Oh, it's the next exit coming up."

Naoto turned into the appropriate lane as he directed her, "Clothing… I didn't even think of that yet. I'm still caught up on how I'm going to feed the thing," she said, though trying not to express too much worry, "That would help, though. Thank you very much, Tatsumi-kun."

Once off the highway, the drive to the apartment that Kanji and his cousin both shared was a short one. In the parking lot, each tenant had their own reserved parking and Naoto was directed to an empty spot, noticing that the free spot probably belonged to Kanji's cousin. She assumed that he had already gone out for the day. Shame… She was quite interested in meeting him. Following Kanji just up to the doorway of the complex, she decided to wait outside while Kanji prepared himself in his uniform and grabbed any spare clothes that would fit Kage. He doubted the Shadow would mind if they were still a tad baggy on him. Knowing that she too was in a hurry, Kanji ran back downstairs and outside, offering over a bagged collection of clothes to Naoto, who's raised hand seemed frozen on the spot as she stared back at him.

Kanji blinked, "What… Didn't you want them?" He stood there with a perplexed expression, not realizing that it was the uniform draped over him that had stunned her.

'_Dressed from head to toe in black, he wore a male uniform that reminded her greatly of Yasogami's without the houndstooth collar.'_

That was the uniform… It was the exact same one that the hooded student from the day before wore while visiting Shinri High. The one the news refused to identify, and the one Kage had… unfortunately injured. Her lips parted as she wrapped her fingers around the offered bag of clothes, "Tatsumi-kun, that… uniform. I've seen it before."

Kanji looked down at himself and then back up, "S'just my school uniform… What's with that expression?"

"It was… I…" she shook her head. She didn't want to mention it, but at least it would help Kanji better understand the situation if he knew, "It was yesterday when I saw him. A student wearing that uniform came to our school after class claiming to know something about the Shadow Extractions-... Ah, that's what they're calling that odd technique we learned of the night before, apparently."

Kanji rose a brow.

She carried on, "And so… I gave it one more try, this time without resistance. I don't know how or why, but when it happened I felt like a part of me had been torn away, and given the name, you can probably assume what it was."

"Kage, huh…?"

"Nn… And not just from myself. It seems anyone who gave into that student's experiment had something of a Persona temporarily surface from their body as well. Only, mine stayed, though… and he immediately went savage on the boy. I doubt it was enough to kill since he was apparently hospitalized but… I don't know anything else aside from that. Perhaps, though… he can put Kage back if I find him."

"Genkaku," Kanji mentioned.

"Pardon?"

"That's the school, its Genkaku High. Look, I know you're pretty headstrong about this kind of stuff, but enough of the 'I' business, k? I'll see if I can find anything out at school today and I'll let you know the moment I do. So, let's just say that 'we'll' find him, alright?" he said with a confident smirk. With a hand risen over Naoto's head, he ruffled at her hair slightly, "You didn't have to lie, you idiot. You could'a just told me that's why you were late."

Naoto smiled and made lazy swats at his intruding hand, "You're right, I'm sorry… I simply didn't want you getting more involved in something that could be potentially dangerous. Promise me you won't trouble yourself."

"Phuh… I'm sure if someone from our school got messed up that bad, then everyone's probably already talking about it," he answered, "But yeah, I promise."

"Thank you… Perhaps we can avert this crisis sooner than expected."

* * *

"What do you mean 'withheld information'!?" Naoto's heightened voice caused many of the police station's crew to peer up over their cubicle walls, some giving off disinterested sighs. Wonderful, the child was whining again.

A man well over a foot taller than Naoto dropped his shoulders down and rubbed the back of his head like a hound getting its discipline for the day. His name was Tetsuma Tsuge, and as the manager of research and science at the police department, there were very few people that dared to talk him down. Naoto was one of them, although she unfortunately had to admit that it was due to Tetsuma's soft spot for women. He simply couldn't yell back.

"It's all I can say… No one's telling us what hospital your student got sent to, or his name, or anything else about him. I applaud you for identifying the school, however. And as outlined in your report, you seem to have gotten close enough to the case that it would be foolish of me to assign anyone else to it. We definitely have something amiss going on in this city and I want you to find out more for me," he replied, jumping to the point in hopes that it would calm Naoto down. She could tell that he was merely buttering her up, though.

"That's ridiculous… Who found the student, then? The news explained very little, but at least they knew that he had injuries bad enough to get sent to 'a hospital'. Just… 'a hospital'?" she seethed, realizing how unorganized the provided information was, "You don't just go around saying 'Hey, guess what, we've got a battered student but we're not telling you who he is or where we put him'. All of this anonymity is making this case sound more suspicious than it probably is."

Tetsuma sighed and sat himself down on an available chair which gave off an extended creak due to his size, "Is it really? Perhaps it's for the student's own security. The news station might know about him, but they could have been told not to disclose any information."

"Then why don't 'we' know!?" she rebutted, "We 'are' security."

Tetsuma's eyes pinched together. Good point.

"I have a thought, though… There's only one other group that we know of who are also involved in these events. This student could have very well been one of their consorts," Naoto mentioned as a few light bulbs turned on in her head.

The man looked up, "You're talking about the gang from the other night, eh? Ah-…" he paused abruptly, then almost as quickly snapped his fingers in realization, "Of course! While we don't know where that student went, we at least know where Goro Yagi is. I believe that was the name of the man your acquaintance hit."

"Hit…?" Naoto replied in a low voice. This was something that Kanji had not told her.

"Aye, pretty hard. They got him under their care over at Yagokoro General. If you suspect this student had anything to do with that gang, then that man would probably be your best lead right now," he leaned back into the chair with another defining creak, "I realize that you've got a history with this Tatsumi fellow. Even if this isn't for the Shadow Extraction case, you should at least go and clear things up with Goro. From what we can tell, the only person who actually got injured during that assault was him, turning your friend into the only clear offender here."

Naoto felt her stomach drop as she realized the depth of the situation. Two males hospitalized, and both at the fault of both herself and Kanji. Solving this case was never solely about getting Kage back to where he belonged, it was about clearing up their names. Kanji's punch and Kage's outburst were both acts of self-defense… most likely. But unless that was made clear, the media could twist the story and their names would be shamed forever. Not too good.

"I-… I was unaware of this… However, I will plan a trip to the hospital tomorrow. I will get Goro's side of the story and make sure that he has no ill intentions," Naoto answered, "The law here permits self-defense as protection against certain charges to a very reasonable degree and I will make sure he knows of that."

Tetsuma slowly shook his head, "To the degree that your friend hit him, though… You better hope you can scare Goro away from lawsuit because there's a good chance he'd win in court. We interrogated his whole crew and each of 'em said that they had no intention of actually hurting Tatsumi. They're a creepy lot, but the worst they did was hold him down. Goro, however, is recovering from a concussion."

Naoto was having a difficult time digesting Tetsuma's words. Indeed, if Goro held any resentment towards Kanji, then it was going to be tough getting any good information out of him. And if this was her only lead, then Naoto was standing on very thin ice. As she rested a hand over her forehead, Tetsuma could tell that the weight of it all was causing her stress.

"There's no need to rush this… We can get someone else to visit him if you're not comfortable," he reminded.

She shook her head in response, "No… No, it's fine. I already have too many thoughts and questions about this case to just hand it over to someone else. Though, I'll most likely have to email you my next report," she stated, "I have quite a bit at home and in school to catch up on."

Tetsuma waved his hand dismissively and turned on his seat, "That's fine. Juggle everything as you need to. I'm honestly impressed with both yours and Aoi-san's management skills," he mentioned, "Take care then."

Naoto returned the wave with a small smile and walked herself back to her desk. That's right; Touko was usually around here before school… She must have left just an hour or so ago. With that reminder, Naoto flipped open her phone and made sure to let her friend know that she'd be missing from school for the day. Naoto would be able blame it on exhaustion from the previous day's events if Touko asked. As she put the phone away, she booted up her PC and did a quick map search on Genkaku High. It was definitely a good drive away from Shinri… Unfortunately, checking the news feeds didn't produce any strange results. It seemed like no one was intent on relating this incident back to the school. There had to be a reason for that…

Naoto sat back in her chair for a moment and gave herself some time to ponder. She wanted just one moment of quiet before having to return to the complicated needs of her Shadow.

* * *

Kage lay upside down from the edge of Naoto's bed, arms sprawled onto the floor below and legs clinging to the other end of mattress for support. His mouth hung open as he mindlessly indulged in the head rush to kill time. How boring… Many times he'd stared out the window into the estate's backyard and marveled at how exciting and vast the human world seemed. Alas, he had made a promise to confine himself to the bedroom and was going to try and make the best of it. But what was there to do here besides sleep…? There were no surgery tables or drills or robots or anything fun to play with. Just some desks, shelves, books, and a couple of screened boxes that Kage was able to recognize, but didn't entirely understand their function. He knew them as computers and TVs in the Shadow world, but all they ever played there were the same things over and over again. It was the idea of a computer or TV, never a real one.

As his mind wandered, Kage's grip on the other end of the bed began to loosen until he finally slid off the side, the back of his head bumping against the ground below him. Giving off an agitated grunt, he rested his hands flat behind his head and pushed into a backward roll, landing back on his knees. Well, that was fun enough. Now upright, he once again scanned the room for anything amusing and gave a prolonged stare at the TV across the room. Such devices had also been used as the pathway between the two worlds, but that was a connection that had been severed long ago. Inching closer to the TV, Kage rested his fingertips against the screen and gave off a small frown when nothing happened. Ever since he became a Persona, Kage no longer had to reside within that world, but at least it was more accommodating than this one. However, the most accommodating place was Naoto's subconscious, and that's where he preferred to be. When she accepted him, he was given a home where his survival depended on hers and nothing more. None of this 'food' nonsense that forced all Shadows to be the heinous monsters that they were. Kage hated to think that he would ever have to be that way again.

"I'm dying…" he muttered to himself in his pitiful reverberant voice, shoulders drooping. The bedroom was beginning to feel more like a glass container with no holes for air. Balling his hands into little fists, he gripped at his sleeves and brought them up to his moistening eyes. No one had told him where they were going or what time they would be back… Did they do that on purpose? Maybe Naoto and Kanji were never coming back… The Shadow began to weep as the thought took over whatever speck of reasoning he had, "… They abandoned me…!" he whined. Good grief, it had only been an hour. "I'll be alone FOREVERR- oh hey, what's that."

The Shadow's immediate bipolar response would shock anyone if only they had seen how quick it had happened. His previous train of thought was completely thrown out the window and he was now engrossed by a blinking light coming from a large electronic box under one of the desks. This was a computer, wasn't it? All of the ones back at the lab were giants compared to this flimsy little box of circuits; what a piece of junk this must have been… Still, glowing thingy. Pressing his finger to the blinking power button seemed to awaken the computer out of sleep mode, the monitor brightening. Kage stood on his two feet and pressed his nose to the screen, eyes widened, "OOoooo…."

But wait… Where were all the data charts, scanners, random flashing lights and satellite images? Kage sat himself down and took the mouse in hand, searching the screen for anything that would lead him to the weapons of mass destruction. Everyone had those, didn't they? Maybe there was some sort of alarm system that would allow him to make SOS cries at anyone who dared to step close enough to the estate. No, no, there didn't seem to be anything of the sort… Why did Naoto even bother keeping a computer if she wasn't going to use it properly? As he aimlessly clicked around, Kage was able to find a number of uninteresting programs. There were things that could be drawn on, things that played music, sounds and videos, and many sorts of word documents. However, Kage huffed with disinterest. Giving this waste of technology one more chance, he clicked on one last icon: a fox missing most of its limbs circled around a shiny blue planet.

What appeared was a window with a simple logo and some sort of search bar underneath it. Kage shrugged to himself as he typed the word 'food' into the bar and let the search collect a list of results. The very top result seemed to be from some sort of information base called Quikipedia that had its page on 'food' highlighted. Selecting it and scrolling down, the Shadow attempted to understand the ingestion process from a human perspective. It made enough sense… but all this talk of fats, carbs and other such nutrients was something he couldn't relate to. That wasn't what he craved from people… what he desired was the essence that made people who they were. The body was just a biological husk for the true nectar inside. Kage felt his mouth water as his cursor rolled over a 'Like' button, to which he clicked in agreement. Yeah, he liked food.

However, what he was taken to was a completely unrelated page. One full of names and images and idle banter between… people? Squinting his eyes, Kage clicked on one of the names out of curiosity and was rewarded with a lengthy amount of information on this person's life… Where they were born, what schools they attended, who their family was… Their engagement with this website was so deep and open, it was as if all of these user accounts were living, breathing digital people. MyPlace… huh.

Kage pressed himself against the screen one more time, only stopping once he realized that it wasn't going to give way to a digital realm full of minds and information and other delicious things. Slightly frustrated, he stood up and walked around the computer area, staring at the different connections and wires that lead back down to the main machine below. He could figure it out… There had to be a way to access this kind of information and make use of it. As he knelt before the main computer, he noticed various ports and some corresponding plugs that fit into them. One was in the shape of a small, rectangular box, which upon being inserted into the port, brought up a window asking if he wanted to … scan the USB for errors? Whatever. A connection was made!

"So if I can have one of these…" he murmured to himself, unplugging the USB stick and looking over it curiously. Raising a hand, he rubbed the skin of his neck and felt against an internal structure that was both biological and artificial. Indeed, the intricacies of such technology were not at all foreign to him. One could even say that he knew it inside and out.

Rolling around the room on the wheeled computer chair, he plundered every drawer in sight for a set of tools that could assist him with the job. Naoto was rather big on gadgetries and tinkering with readymade items, so surely she'd have something hidden away. His search wasn't a long one at all. Stashed away in one of the corner drawers was an assortment of various computer pieces, wires, clips and other electronics, as well as a small toolbox underneath. Kage grabbed what he figured he'd need and set himself up on the floor in front of the full body mirror, reaching first for a tiny screwdriver. It had been some time since he last meddled around with his inner workings, so it took him a moment to locate the hidden bolts behind his ears. Without feeling around, you would have never noticed them since they were concealed under both hair and a self-healing layer of skin. However, upon unscrewing them, Kage's convincingly human face separated into many connected segments, opening up to reveal an assemblage of circuits inside. Still capable of functioning in such a state, the Shadow examined himself in the mirror and wondered where the best place to hide such a plug would be…

"Heh… humans eat through their faces, don't they?" he reminded himself, sticking a finger in and poking at the roof of his mouth. It wouldn't be difficult to hide such a contraption there. As far as Kage was aware, humans didn't actively examine each other's orifices for any particular reason either. The thought of it sounded absurd, even to him. Exploring the equipment on the floor, he reached for a small precision knife, "So it'll be, then."

* * *

Leaving no trace of his work, the little Shadow sat down and rolled back towards the computer, a rather conspicuous cord dangling from the corner of his mouth. At its end was the plug end of a USB connector that he hoped Naoto wasn't going to miss. She had so many spare parts; he assumed she didn't keep tabs on every little thing. Anyways, it was time to test this thing out. Taking the plug between his fingers, he pulled it down to one of the USB ports in the computer, the cord unraveling from his mouth. As the connection was made, Kage's golden eyes widened as a tingling sensation flowed through him at an alarming rate. He froze on the spot as he was forced to process such an intense amount of information all at once. This internet thing… it was insanely vast. Closing his eyes, he focused on what was needed and attempted to block off any unneeded transmissions. Kage-firewall.

The things on these websites… These user accounts and the evidence of dependence and fondness for them… that's what tickled his fancy. What was it that Naoto had described before? Taste? There was without a doubt something succulent and appetizing about this sort of information that only a machine could understand. Yes, it would be his… Whatever tricks he had to resort to, and whatever security he had to crumble. And then, when all was done and his system was finally satisfied, the little USB connection could wind back up and be concealed within the roof of his mouth. No one had to know a thing... Kage gave off a prideful smirk as the data was absorbed, one user account at a time. Perhaps it wouldn't be so difficult to sustain himself within this world after all. The internet… was delicious.

* * *

"Home!" Naoto's voice could be heard from down below as she raced up the stairs and back to her room, heart pounding with anxiety. Swinging open the door, the Shadow was… still there! Giving off a heavy sigh, Naoto stopped on the spot and attempted to catch her breath. Kage was… once again making the best of his time in a room that didn't offer too many things to play with. Having gotten into some of his host's memorabilia, Kage lay on the bed with an imitation Sherlock Holmes hat upon his head and pipe within his mouth, the first book of a great series held in his hands.

Still paused by surprise, Naoto couldn't even express disdain over the Shadow getting into her precious artifacts, "I'm… honestly surprised that you're still here."

Looking her way, Kage lowered the book to his chest and took the pipe into one hand, "Elementary, you made me give my word to detain myself to this cubicle of a room, and I always intend to keep my promises." … British accent and all.

"You weren't all that obedient last night…" she reminded him, arms crossing.

Kage closed his eyes and produced a witty grin, "On the contrary, you did not make me promise anything of the sort last night."

Pausing again, Naoto refreshed her memory, and then frowned over the realization, "… That's… surprisingly true."

"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" spoke the little cheek as he dipped the Holmes hat brim lower.

"Never, nor is that relevant to what we're talking about. Why are you quoting my stories?"

"T'is a good book."

"… Very," Naoto couldn't help but agree. Despite his incessant whining and delusions of grandeur, she and her Shadow had at least a few things that they could bond over. The one positive over having a doppelganger at home was that Naoto could easily predict what would entertain him. Finally stepping out of the doorway, she walked over and sat at the foot of the bed, "So, still not feeling well?"

"If you mean hunger… I…" Kage's eyes drifted to the side as he thought over his words. He was capable of feeling guilt, and what he had just done on the computer definitely felt like theft. It probably wasn't acceptable at all, nor was it nearly as satisfying, "I, eh… still kind'a peckish, I guess…" Lies, he was stuffed to the brim with user information.

"Have you considered any alternatives? This world is full of opportunity and variety, I honestly depress over the thought that you have no other choice," she spoke, clearly expressing pity in her voice.

Kage averted his gaze and frowned, "I may look like you, but I would rather starve than stoop down to your human methods. Don't think for a moment that we are anything alike on the physical inside. You may call it picky, but I call it perfection over the fact that we Shadows need not rely on anything else," he spoke in an alarmingly serious tone. Oh goodie, there went the over-inflated ego. Naoto understood him without question though. After seeing an incomprehensible X-ray of Teddie's innards, even she couldn't fathom what sort of matter Shadows were composed of, let alone the science of what fueled it. If it was people, then it was people. At least Teddie had made the effort to humanize his body because of his desire to live amongst them, so food had never been a problem. Kage, however, had his pride.

Naoto sighed, but nodded. She was bothered by one thing he had said, however. "To starve… I'm sorry, but you come from an entirely different way of living from us. I didn't even think that Shadows could die. We only ever managed to suppress them through our Personas." It was a fortunate fact, and the only reason why Shadow hunting was so guilt-free. Killing was an entirely different story… and a thought that honestly scared her, "… And what if that does happen?"

Kage didn't miss a beat, "Then you might as well consider yourself dead too."

… He couldn't have sugar-coated it just a little? Naoto felt her arms go weak as she slumped forwards on her bed, eyes going round. She had already made enough shocking realizations at the station today, this was the last thing that she needed to hear right now. Alas, the Shadow continued, "Do not forget that I am an integral portion of your psyche. The core of it, no less. At the base of one's subconscious lies the id, and within it are the animus, instincts and that which drives your desires. Above it exists the rational you, the ego, who often forgets all your necessary inner-workings and exists under the impression that you have complete control over yourself. But… you do not have command over your heartbeat or when it stops."

Naoto slowly turned her gaze back to the Shadow. His piercing stare was unnerving even with the eccentric hat on his head. Kage could tell that he was getting under her skin, and nothing tickled his fancy more than breaking through her resilient shell. The look on her face… she was begging him to stop with nothing more than her eyes.

"For myself to live… you would have to kill?" she managed to speak again, inquiring in a low voice.

Kage stared up with a raised brow, "Kill, hm? Do humans honestly need their thoughts so badly that they'd die without them?"

Naoto blinked, "Their… thoughts? You said that you ate people."

The Shadow closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders dismissively, "Your thoughts are what make you who you are, and thus what make you a person. That is all I require. It's not nearly as gruesome as you… obviously have been thinking."

"I see…" she answered, not sure if she should be relieved or not. This was still far from being a comfortable matter. "Then, what are we without our thoughts? You just finished explaining to me how significant the mind is… and now you're making it sound like it's unnecessary."

"Unnecessary to live, perhaps."

"Perhaps?" she leered. This wasn't something he was allowed to guess!

Kage sat up straight and set the book and pipe down beside him, giving her an equally agitated look, "Again! You're assuming I know so much about your world when I simply do not. What I used to devour back then was anything that came through to the Shadow realm that failed to defend itself. What was left of it simply disappeared and that's as far as my understanding goes. But it wasn't dead. Mindless, for sure, but not dead."

Not until it returned to the human world plunged upon the framework of a broadcast tower or telephone pole, at least. At that point, nothing should be able to live. Naoto suppressed her memory of the crime scenes which were often too disturbing to comprehend. Though, what remained was that neither she nor her Shadow could assume exactly what would happen if he indulged in the human world. However, Kage's argument and talk of death put a heavy weight on Naoto's conscience.

"These… thoughts that you eat. What do they do for you?" she asked, "I mean… to make someone's mind a part of you… Do you understand the person better after you've taken such a thing away from them?"

Kage smiled at her question, "I can't imagine a quicker way of getting to know someone. Of course, it's not as if I cared about the humans that stumbled into our world. If I did, I wouldn't have eaten them," A valid point… "But definitely… When a person communicates, they have the option to lie or cover up hidden information if they so wish to. But, if I wanted, I could read the mind of anyone I ever downed and recall all their memories and raw thoughts."

Naoto looked up, "That… is a rather abusable power."

"I don't really like it… Prodding around too much often leads to regret," he reminded.

Naoto slowly nodded as she leaned back onto the bed, her head resting on Kage's legs as she stared up at the ceiling. A thought crossed her mind… a horrible thought. Contemplating her next course of action in the Shadow Extraction case and what would likely be the interrogation of a man who harbored unspeakable secrets… she couldn't imagine how much effort it would take to get Goro to squawk… and how much of his words would even be true… Yet information was a detective's gold and she was lying against an information reservoir. It was a rather abusable power indeed…

"Kage…" she looked over, and the Shadow stared down, "Someone we know right now could be in trouble because of an act of violence that wasn't entirely his fault, but could easily be made out to be. At the same time, there is an important piece to this crime that is being hidden away and the true perpetrator most likely knows about it. This is a complicated case that can't be uncovered through questioning alone… I feel it's more paranormal than that."

Kage wiggled on the spot as she explained her situation, understanding only the gist of what she was trying to ask. "You want the truth," he spoke.

Naoto dipped her head down and nodded, "I want to know what he knows. I feel that there is a danger in whatever they're doing… Even if it isn't so obvious yet, I sense that there is someone with malign intent in all of this."

The Shadow tented his fingers together, masking a little smirk behind them.

She continued, "As you said, when you consumed a human's thoughts, you never actually killed them. If tomorrow I cannot get a satisfactory answer out of him… then I want you to do it for me. As long as you promise to cause no pain and leave no trace…"

The human desire to live was a truly strong one… It could lead to irrational thoughts and desperation, all of which temporarily blocked out one's sense of guilt and pride. The point when one gets cornered is the point in which one reveals their most involuntary tactics.

"I promise."

* * *

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! A Shadow has discovered the Internet, and the 'Ask Kage' blog is now available on the AnimusFanfiction Tumblr page. Got a comment or question for the little miscreant? Maybe he'll say some funny things back at you, or just be an uncouth jerk. Who knows, he's deranged like that.


	5. Chapter 5

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

April 11th, 2013, Thursday

The new day brought with it the sound of chirping birds as they bathed in the low morning sun. The sound of a flock departing from one of the backyard trees in mass awoke Naoto, who first checked her clock for the time, and then promptly turned her face back into her pillow. The alarm would go off in ten minutes… Was there any sense in going back to sleep now? Sighing, she raised her hand towards the clock to turn off the buzzer… or at least, that's what she would have liked to do. Her arm was pinned to her side by a hugging set of limbs coming from behind, Kage's cheek resting against the back of her neck. Darn it… He had won this time… The Shadow had perfected his skills well enough to sneak into bed without waking up his host. Naoto made a face when she realized that this was going to remain a nightly endeavor until she gave in and simply allowed it. At the very least, it wasn't terribly uncomfortable…

Naoto immediately ate those words as she felt a little tongue trail its tip up the spine of her neck, causing her to break free of his grasp and him push away, "Don't get fresh…!"

Kage curled up his legs and made himself into a small ball as he chuckled playfully, "I'm just kiddiiiiing. Good morning."

Naoto rubbed the back of her neck and shivered, "Morning… Ugh…" Capable of using her arms again, she reached for the alarm and turned it off before it released its irritating wail. Convinced that Kage had enough morality to stay in her room as promised, she felt safe with the idea of going back to school today. Huh… Speaking of which, Kanji had never gotten back to her about his trip to school yesterday. Checking her phone, she realized that there was one missed message that she had received while asleep.

'_Nothing unusual here. My cousin hasn't heard anything either. Are you sure that the uniform you saw was the same one that I had? 'Cause everyone here seems alive and well_.' – 1:24 AM

Kanji had stayed up pretty late… Thus, Naoto doubted that he'd be up this early in the morning. No sense in calling him now… Still, she had a very discerning eye for details and was absolutely certain that the two uniforms from before had been the same. Thinking about it, Naoto realized the possibility that this student didn't go to the same school anymore. Perhaps he graduated and kept that uniform as a memoir. Her only chance at getting the whole story was to confront Goro Yagi about his network of colleagues and see if anyone matched the description. Looking down at her cell phone, she knew that because of his hands-on experience with the gang, Kanji could be potentially useful as well. Goro was most likely going to lie about what he knew, but with Kanji in the room, he could only lie about so much. Unlike most of the police force, she and Kanji accepted the existence of paranormal activity and wouldn't cloak it up as 'he's just crazy'. Writing up a reply to Kanji's text, she asked if he would be available after school to make a small visit to the hospital… And as for Kage, she hoped she wouldn't have to resort to his tricks.

* * *

"Goro Yagi? You sure that's his real name or just some tough-guy moniker he flaunts around?" Kanji joked as they left Sousei at the hospital parking lot and stepped up to the front entrance, "Bet it's actually something real wimpy sounding…"

Naoto smirked and shook her head, "All of them had valid IDs on hand. At the very least, he won't be able to cover up any names. By the way… thank you for joining me again. I apologize if this is cutting into your school work at all."

Kanji gave a half-hearted shrug. School had never been one of his top priorities… "This is way more exciting… Plus, I get to help out a friend. There ain't anythin' more important than that."

Reaching the front desk, Naoto requested a visit with Mr. Yagi, and was thankfully given the go-ahead without much trouble. The man wasn't in any critical state; he was just recovering from a broken nose and some stitching. If anything, it was surprising to hear that he had been kept in the hospital for this long… Naoto was beginning to suspect that there was something more to this, and unfortunately there was. As they silently stepped into the man's room, they could hear the sound of humming and murmuring coming from his blanket covered face. Unable to move much due to his restraints, Goro stared absentmindedly at the ceiling and softly laughed at… nothing. His deep eyes and bright crimson hair were now dulled from his lack of personal care, and each shaggy strand of hair pressed firmly to his sweating forehead. If there was any place that could better treat him right now, it was a mental ward.

"Yagi-san? If we may have a bit of your time," Naoto addressed as she stepped forwards, trying to get his attention. Her arm reached downwards to a small audio recorder at her belt's side and let it begin its work.

"Hhhyeaah?" he responded, tilting his head up just enough to see the two individuals standing at the side of his bed. His high, bony cheeks were sunken in from an obvious lack of eating, and his grey eyes squinted between baggy eyelids. Even with a witless stare, he was able to recognize both of them almost immediately, "Aw look, it's the fuzz. Wadda'ya want? I already got enough pudding crammed down my throat and … these walls are… mluh. Don't.. buh. I ain't got all day…"

Naoto lifted a brow. At least he was a talkative one, but as his sentence trailed on, it was clear that Goro wasn't in his right mind at all. Was he under some sort of pain medication that was causing this? At least there was a good chance that he'd let something slip, but in his current state, Naoto had to take everything he said with a grain of salt. Looking over her shoulder, she nodded at Kanji and he took a step closer.

Staring back down at Goro, she continued, "Sir, do you remember this man? Three nights ago you were involved in a group assault that we understand lead to some… bizarre events. I believe some of your followers called it Shadow Extraction?"

Goro's eyes went squinty as he focused on Kanji, a grin lifting on his face, "Yeah, you're the dude… Did'ya like it? D'unno what feels better, that shit or eating pancakes for dinner. Both are pretty damn good. It's like… if 'happy' had a definition, that'd be it."

Naoto closed her eyes for a moment, feeling slightly irritated. Obviously there was no such thing as a straight answer from this man… she would have to cut to the chase and she hoped he would too, "Alright… so you're aware of what you did. Could you tell me how you first discovered these Shadow Extractions?"

"Oh dude… you don't just… do it… you just kind'a know, y'know? It's like… I didn't know I could, but then suddenly I saw everyone was doin' this drug thing and… heh, who the fuck knows… Who cares… We thought, 'Damn, this stuffs' amazing, we can't be the only ones'. So… yeah, discovery, dude," he babbled on in a way that made it difficult to piece together any sort of solid story. From the way he spoke, however, Naoto could assume that he probably wasn't the founder of this phenomenon. Unless it was an accident.

"Drug thing?" she pinpointed one of his phrases.

"Yeah, it's like… I thought we were all high or something, 'cause ghosts ain't real or anything. But there they all were… and it was like 'Aw man, what did we take?', but who the hell is keeping track? So we got these big ghostly dudes chillin' with us, drinking and smoking god knows what, and then someone's like 'DUDE. These are REAL.' And no one believed his shit. Funniest thing ever, I swear. But… dude, let me tell ya somethin'… really, come closer," he spoke, tilting his head to the side to encourage her. Naoto shrugged and leaned in, ignoring the stink of his breath. "It kept happening… We weren't popping anything anymore. Didn't need to. The ghosts, man… they're damn real."

Naoto could imagine how an explanation such as this would be received at the police station. In short, they were mad. All of them. There was nothing in his statement worth pursuing, but Naoto knew otherwise. From what she could understand, these people had managed to awaken their Personas during a drug-induced stupor and subsequently learned how to manifest them in the real world. That feeling of weightlessness and euphoria… was that supposed to be a reflection of what they were feeling when they first awakened? Naoto's mind rattled over this new information and prayed it was all true. At least it was something to go on…

"Please try to recall how or why these ghosts appeared… Could it have been one of the drugs you took?" she questioned.

"Drugs… maybe… I'unno who started it, 'cause ya can't do it less someone does it to ya first…" as he spoke, his eyes suddenly went wide and a senseless smile crept across his face, "Oh fuck, hahahaha!"

Naoto was taken aback by the sudden drop of Goro's marbles. Sitting up straight, she turned her disturbed features to Kanji and shook her head. It seemed like they were onto something too, but Goro's laughing refused to cease.

"This guy's lost it…" Kanji remarked, shoulders slumped.

No, this wasn't where she was going to end it… Naoto still had one last important question for this man. As she held out a hand to Kanji, he took the cue and offered over his school uniform to which she held up in front of Goro where he could see it.

"Please, Yagi-san… Are you familiar with anyone who wears this uniform?" she questioned, mentally crossing her fingers.

As he looked over the clothing, Goro's smile stretched farther and his laughter reached the peak of its insanity, "Hahaha! YEAH. You don't even wanna bloody know!" he exclaimed, "That fucker… I trusted him… haha…"

Naoto leaned in close once again, "A name. Please give us a name."

"The devil ain't got no name, don't bother trying to win his game, he's gonna kill you all the saaaame-ahaha…!" Goro's fingers tightened around the bed sheets as beads of sweat formed against his skin, "Take me now, you lowly bastard!"

"Did you even know his name? Or where he is now?" she pressed.

Snapping a hard glare at Naoto, Goro lifted a hand and slammed it down against the mattress, "Bitch, I ain't got time for this! No one does anymore- aaahaha!"

Naoto inhaled deeply as she stood up and returned the article of clothing to Kanji, dipping her head down. "I can't handle this," she spoke abruptly, a hand resting over her forehead. Normally she had no problem at all when it came to prying open the minds of others, but digging into that of a mentally unstable patient… There was simply too much that was 'off' about this man. Based on what he had said, she had already developed a few thoughts and theories, but now wasn't the time to execute them. It was safe to say that Goro wasn't going to be any threat to Kanji's finances, and that's all that mattered. As well, he seemed to be familiar with someone from Kanji's school. Whether or not it was the same boy would be impossible to know unless a name was given, but Goro was obviously at the end of his rational thought. Kage would be needed for this and hopefully nothing else...

Stepping out of the building to get some fresh air, Naoto figured that maybe this was the most ideal method. The way Goro spoke made it sound as if he was haunted by the mere thought of this individual. If Kage could remove that memory from his mind, then perhaps he would be more at peace. Intent on driving Kanji back to his apartment, Naoto walked back to Sousei and hopped aboard the bike, "Disturbances aside, I'd say this trip was fruitful."

* * *

The hour hand of the hospital clock was crawling closer to midnight, the ticking of the second hand being one of the few discernible noises at this time of night. With all doors closed, every patient had been put to bed and a calm atmosphere filled the otherwise busy medical center. Despite the small amount of light in the hallways that seeped under the doorway and the moonlight from the windows, Goro slept in perfect darkness.

As time carried on, the stretch of light filtering under the door vanished as it was replaced by murky goo seeping under the doorway, the substance remaining flat against the ceramic floor tiles. As it inched closer to the wheels of the hospital bed, a pair of shining amber orbs surfaced from the slime and added another dim light source to the room. Taking in everything it could see from the surrounding environment, the little Shadow surmised that the man resting in bed was in fact asleep. With that clarified, the slime pulled itself together and balled at the side of the bed, its mass accumulating until it took on the human appearance of Kage. The dim light from his eyes blinked as he stared down at the person in front of him. What sort of important little secrets were buried deep within this one…? Kage bit the tip of his tongue with eagerness, his pupils dilating. It had been literally ages since he had last fed this way, and even though it was no longer necessary thanks to his discovery of online networks, there was an instinctual drive that made it all too irresistible. Plus, Naoto had practically begged him to, so what harm was there?

Small trails of hazy smoke seemed to lift off of his skin, a residual effect that up until now had only been witnessed inside the TV world. As creatures of the fog, this emission was a distinctive mark of power for Shadows as well as a sign of weakness within their hosts. The more of it there was, the more likely the Shadow could lose its sense of reason and go berserk. The automatic trigger for this mutation were a series of three words that, after the incident two years ago, were never to be spoken lightly again. However, when in control of itself, a Shadow could adopt this fog into a tool that made it possible to engage with the human mind in a number of ways. It was a Shadow's true weapon.

As the smoke expanded, it manifested most prominently behind him in the form of two outstretched tail-like cords. Flowing in the air around him, the twin trails of smoke wormed closer to Goro, trying to press past his pillow to get behind his head.

"… That you, Kon?" a sleepy voice murmured from the man's resting face.

Kage immediately closed his eyes and looked away, pressed against the darkest wall of the room. The foggy tendrils remained outstretched, but with their transparent appearance and inability to be felt, there was little chance that Goro would notice them. As the man's head turned towards the sound, the fog advanced against his now exposed neck and seeped inside his skin.

"Knew you'd come… Bet you were watchin' this whole time, like the freak you are…" Goro spoke, a surprising lack of enthusiasm in his voice, "Yeah, I told 'em… You heard me tell, didn't you? So just bloody get it over with already…"

Kon…

Kage mentally leered as he pressed on into the man's mind, trying to find any trace of that name within it. Obviously he was being mistaken for someone else… someone Goro was expecting to see here tonight. Such a thing could be used to his advantage if Kage played his cards right. Aha, he had something… a thought, a voice…

"I'm here just as you expected… What do you think is going to happen to you?" Kage spoke out from the wall, his voice no longer plagued with a raspy, devilish echo. He had taken on the voice of this 'Kon', a rather typical young male voice.

Goro sighed lightly, "Like you don't freakin' know… Ye came here to kill me… Y'said you would if I let that shit slip…" his fingers kneaded tensely against the bed sheets, "So I did… And that's all they need to know to take your rotten ass down…"

Kage felt anxiety in his chest. It was unexpected, but there was a chance that this man was going to die here regardless, either by Kage's carelessness or later tonight by someone else entirely. The Shadow shivered to himself as he considered the situation he was in. If he did this now… then he could at least guarantee that Goro would die painlessly. He couldn't imagine what this 'Kon' had in store for him, but it sounded like vengeful murder, a punishment… Kage's closed eyes tightened as moisture formed under his eyelids. He didn't have to ask any more of this man… Soon he would know everything that he needed to know. Stepping away from the wall, Kage returned to the bedside and slowly rested a hand over Goro's eyes, gazing down at the shaking man with sympathy.

"Go back to sleep…" he whispered.

Goro complied with a small nod and rested his eyes again, trying to suppress his panicked breathing. The Shadow remained standing before him, patiently waiting for Goro's conscious mind to drift away into a sleep that he wouldn't awaken from.

…

It took little time. Kage sat down on the cold floor in silence, his back resting against the wall. Paying attention to the ticking of the room's clock, he stared quietly at the euthanized man before him. The Shadow had come here for raw information and had gotten all that he needed… but for a while, something kept him from leaving the room. He couldn't run away knowing that he had possibly intervened on a murder. This 'Kon' could arrive at any moment. Similarly, after going through Goro's thoughts and memories for Naoto's sake, Kage couldn't help but stay and mourn for the man he now knew too much about. It took every pleasure out of feasting, and he now deeply regretted even coming here…

… What was Naoto going to think? Bringing up his arms over his head, Kage curled into a ball against his knees and quietly whimpered to himself. He was going to have to tell her… everything. For now, he didn't want to return to her, but as time passed by, he felt awkward about staying here by Goro's corpse. It wasn't as if sticking around here was going to justify this kill… Indeed, it had been a couple of hours already. Perhaps it was time to return home.

* * *

The environment that Kage returned to in Naoto's room was surprisingly similar to Goro's. In a dark room, Naoto lay restlessly on her bed, her mindless eyes staring at the ceiling above her. Whether or not she had any intention of sleeping tonight was irrelevant… All she could think about was the case, and chances are that if she did manage to fall asleep, her dreams would have been infested with thoughts about it as well. When Kage returned, he manifested himself from goop to human in the same old way and stared down at her with vivid eyes. Feeling rather fidgety, he bumped the ends of his oversized sleeves together nervously. Naoto didn't break her focus from the ceiling for a moment… but she knew that he had come back.

In total silence, there was enough tension that it could be cut with a knife. Kage finally parted his lips, "Do you know this voice?" he asked, employing the sound of Kon's speech.

Naoto's brow furrowed as she listened, and then turned her gaze to Kage, "Speak a little more…?"

"My name is Kage, I am a Shadow. I like robots and detectives and tree forts and computers and Naoto and Kanji and cuddles and food and the colour blue and lasers and flying and-"

"Okay, okay, I get it…" Naoto stopped him and stewed over the voice, slowly nodding, "That's the one… Though it all happened so fast, I remember the scene particularly well. That was definitely his voice... How are you doing that?"

Kage smacked his lips together and returned to his normal multi-toned voice, "Goro's memories contained that voice. I merely mimicked it." Such talent wasn't a unique characteristic. If Naoto had been there at the time, she would have witnessed Chie's Shadow doing an impression of Yukiko, and Yosuke's impersonating Saki. Most Shadows could do it.

Naoto's eyes lit up so brightly that they metaphorically resembled Kage's. "So he's the same kid…! The one in the uniform who visited Shinri, Goro knew who he was… Did he have a name?"

"Kon," he answered shortly.

"… Kon… Did he have a last name?"

"Kon."

Naoto made a face at his response, "Kon Kon? What sort of name is that?"

Kage shrugged his shoulders with similar befuddlement, "Sorry, but that's all I'm getting… It doesn't feel like a real name, does it?"

Naoto pressed a couple fingertips to her temple and sighed, shaking her head, "It definitely doesn't… But even a nickname can be useful. We'll make the best of it…" she looked back up to him, "Did you find out anything else? Perhaps about why he had that uniform?"

The little Shadow began rubbing his sleeves together again, looking uneasy, "That's… one of the weird things. I'm not sure where that uniform came from, but it seems this Kon fellow was never a member of Tatsumi-kun's school to begin with."

Naoto lidded her eyes. That was something she had feared… but it made sense. It lined up perfectly with the fact that Kanji had not heard a thing about him at school, and that there was nothing on the news identifying him either. It seemed even Goro had never gotten his real name… no one had. "Alright… then at the very least, did Yagi-san know where Kon was taken to?" Honestly this was something she doubted since the man had been in the hospital since his run-in with Kanji.

For Kage, the information he had on this was rather conflicted… The last time anyone heard of Kon, he had been taken into medical care because of a burning stab wound. Kage was vaguely able to recall the fact that it was his fault… But at the same time, Goro feared that the boy was going to kill him tonight. Surely that meant… "No… he couldn't have," Kage shook his head, "Goro doesn't even know that he's being contained. Since he thought Kon was … kind'a… going to off him tonight… for saying some things to you and Kanji."

Naoto immediately sat up straight and gave Kage a hard stare, "Off him? Kill him?"

Kage's eyes darted from side to side, "Yeah?"

"What if he's in the same hospital!?" she had a hard time holding back a yell. It was late… very late. Thankfully her bedroom wasn't too close to Grandpa's, otherwise she risked waking him up.

Kage was taken aback by the realization, eyes wide, "A-…! That's…!"

The both of them sat in silence for a moment, Naoto's teeth clenched together. It was far too late to make another visit to the hospital over such a large hunch. Kage could have been right, after all. Perhaps Goro simply didn't know… And since her Shadow was the one with Goro's thoughts on hand, he was likely more right than she was… But really? Was this man's life in that much danger?

"It… it doesn't matter anyways… whether or not Kon finds him…" Kage peeped under a very tiny voice. He didn't want to do this… If he could reverse time and just redo the entire night, he wouldn't have touched that man's thoughts at all.

"Why doesn't it matter?"

Kage shivered, raising his sleeves up over his face slowly, "'Cause he's already... d-dead…"

More silence. The sound of each other's breathing and a few tiny gulps were the only noises that made it obvious how much they were… processing.

"No…" Naoto uttered in one small breath as she reached for the nearest pillow, slowly dropping down onto it. Curling into a fetal position on her bed, she faced the wall away from her Shadow. "No… no…"

Kage kept his face covered by cloth, eyes shut tight from stress. He didn't have to be connected to her mind to understand how much pain he had managed to put her through in just a couple of days. This was a completely unnecessary stain on Naoto's hands. And though he had such a good thing going with the computer, in this form, he was a Shadow, and nothing was going to change that… He didn't want anyone to change that… But there were far too many bitter downsides. "I'm… I'm a bad Shadow…" he mewled quietly.

Naoto wanted to disagree, but there was too much about this situation that had her worried and unable to think properly, "… How… many more are you… going to kill?"

Peeking up from his sleeves, Kage realized a way out of this. It wouldn't change anything that had already been done, but at the very least… it didn't have to happen again. "I… I'll be good for… I guess ten years now…" he mentioned in a completely serious tone.

As long as he had the internet, that was very true. He'd never have to eat another person ever again… and with all that time, surely they'd find a way to return Kage to her mind. Naoto stopped her shaking and looked over her shoulder at him, "Really…? We have ten years?" The death of one person was horrible enough… but now they had an opportunity. They could focus… and if Goro was already meant to be a dead-man tonight, they could drop all the blame on Kon. Only if such a thing were true, of course…

Kage nodded slowly, watching as a slight measure of relief washed over Naoto. This was completely deceitful… but there wasn't much room for choice here. Looking towards the wall again, Naoto closed her eyes and gave off a small sigh. The late hour of the night was finally starting to catch up to her and she felt her eyelids getting heavier. She would be able to contemplate all of this in the morning… But for now, she required some sleep. Some quiet, uninterrupted, slee-…

Getting pushed a little closer to the wall, Naoto felt Kage shuffle into bed behind her, an arm immediately wrapping around her sides. Closing his own eyes, the Shadow interlocked a leg between both of hers and nuzzled close to his body-pillow-of-a-host. Was he purring? Ridiculous…

"Why do you insist on sleeping so close…" she murmured, looking bothered.

Kage opened one eye for a moment, "'Cause it's like home… When you sleep, I feel like… just by being close, I'm back to where I'm supposed to be. Your dreams put me at ease…" he said softly, "Oh- and you're really comfy."

Naoto tilted her head down. And here she thought it was nothing more than a childish desire and a terrible habit… She couldn't help but feel a little sympathetic now. She had never required any sleeping aids like blankets or lights, but deep down she had always felt a longing for the things that she was forced to grow out of. Especially the things that had been taken away from her…

Curled up against her Shadow, Naoto pulled up a blanket over the both of them. In their warmth, she quietly hummed a soft tune, a look of relaxation filling both of their faces.

Kage nestled close, "Mother used to sing that…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

April 12th, 2013, Friday

The sleepy morning silence in the room was quickly startled awake by the sound of Naoto's alarm clock; a droning buzz that prompted an extreme response from the Shadow who had never woken up so suddenly before. Naoto's eyes fluttered awake as Kage scrambled to his knees, eyes darting towards the source of the noise. Such a horrible, abrupt sound… it must be a bomb! It would blow up the entire estate and take everything with it! Kage's mind rattled as he panicked and reached for the device. Pushing open the screen of the window, he lobbed the noise-maker as far as it would go, giving off a small yelp as a prick of static shocked his fingers when the cord was yanked out. The clock immediately ceased its ringing as it fell down the tall two stories and shattered into pieces upon hitting the backyard's concrete pathway.

Kage briefly stuck his head out of the window to verify the death of his unmatched opponent, a look of success written all over his face. Pulling back into the room, he stared down at Naoto who, with a half-asleep look, was still trying to comprehend what had just happened. "I have saved us all," he spoke.

"… I don't think my wallet is going to like you very much," Naoto replied, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. She would definitely have to make more time to teach this child about the ways of the world… her house depended on it. "That was an alarm clock. It's supposed to make noise to wake you up. It's annoying, but you're going to have to deal with it," she explained, turning to get out of bed. As her feet hit the ground, she stopped on the spot and lifted her head, just now noticing a familiar scent in the room. A too sterile smell… like antiseptics and used mop water… It was the smell of a hospital. Her nose was drawn right to Kage who was once again staring out the window with a forlorn look.

"I broke it…" he mumbled, eyes leering. He couldn't do anything right, could he?

Naoto spoke up over his lamenting, "You've been here for… three nights now. In all that time, have you washed yourself even once?"

Kage looked up with a puzzled face. There was no bath in this room… and even then, heck no. "I don't require such things. Unlike you clammy, sweaty humans, we Shadows do not give off any stink," he boasted, nose stuck up in the air.

"I don't care if you don't, that doesn't mean that smells don't stick onto you. And honestly, right now you smell somewhat of… death. I'd rather you bathed for the sake of that," she remarked. It was unnerving to say that the Shadow also had a trace of Kanji on him, and he wasn't even in the other boy's clothes yet. They had gone through the wash the day before.

Kage shuffled into the corner between the wall and bed and slumped, "I don't wanna…"

Naoto stood and sighed, walking out towards the bathroom which was thankfully just across the hall, "Come on, it's not that difficult…"

Plugging the bath and getting the water running, she peered back out into the hallway. Kage wasn't following… With her arms crossed, she walked back to the room and saw the boy in the same spot, giving her a look of detest. "Hey…" she motioned for him to follow with a finger, "If you do this, then I'll give you a present, alright?"

Kage perked up somewhat, "A present? What kind of present?"

"You won't know unless you take a bath," she bribed.

Kage made a worried face but slowly slid off the bed, looking up at her. Maybe the present was in the bathroom and if he just wandered in, he'd be able to see it, take it, and then get out of there without any harm done. Sure enough, he slunk out of the room after her, driven by pure curiosity alone, and entered the room where the sound of running water made him immediately nervous. His eyes darted all around the room in search of this promised present, but as he should have assumed, there was nothing for him here. Before he could rebound out of the room, Naoto quickly stood in front of the closed door and held onto the knob, shaking her head. Kage whimpered in protest.

"First, turn that handle counter-clockwise to make the water stop," she instructed, nodding towards the bath.

Kage pressed his sleeves together and stared at the running water, shoulders up. Inching towards the bath, he stretched out his hand and managed to turn the handle with one finger alone, the water stopping as he did. Hopping on the spot, Kage showed pointless excitement over the fact that he had done something right for once.

Naoto smiled, "Alright… now listen carefully because you're doing this on your own. I'll need all of your clothes because I'm putting them in the wash. So leave those outside the door and then put yourself in the water. All you have to do is-"

"I'm not going into the water," Kage puffed out his cheeks.

Naoto put a hand to her forehead and sighed, "It's not lava or anything, Kage, it's just water. You'll feel better after you've had a bath."

He whined a little more, "No I won't! I'll short-circuit if I go in it."

Naoto lifted a brow at that statement. Short-circuit? All at once she questioned how much she really knew about her Shadow physically… On the outside he seemed perfectly human, save for those incandescent eyes. But in the past, his out of control state was comprised of a mostly mechanical body that she assumed was supposed to represent her childhood love for mecha and shonen cartoons. Well, that was the more innocent interpretation… Otherwise, the artificial body could have been a symbol of her dissatisfaction with her physical self and the options she had considered to change it. Her final rejection of those options lead to her accepting that her gender would only be a hindrance if she let it be. Such things never mattered at all… and thus her Shadow had been reborn as her Persona. Would it take another realization such as that to get Kage back where he belonged? … Well, it was a thought worth considering. For now, the one place he belonged was in the bathtub.

"So… you're… a robot?" Naoto questioned, staring her Shadow up and down.

In immediate offense, Kage brought his sleeves up to his eyes and let his voice go shrill, "R-robot…! I'm a cyborg…!" Apparently insulted, the Shadow treated the distinction between the two as heavily as humans separated themselves from apes. "Are you… are you saying that I'm lifeless?" he squeaked out from his sleeves.

"S-sorry… I wasn't even sure… You're right; I guess that was a little unspecific," she bowed her head down apologetically. She was more ashamed of herself for temporarily forgetting the difference between the two. Between robots, androids and cyborgs, robots were absolutely the most lifeless. However… Kage wasn't any simple cyborg. As a Shadow, he didn't even exist under the same physical rules of this world. Plus, she could see no exposed mechanical parts on him at all… Hmm…

"This is just a test," Naoto said, walking away from the locked bathroom door. Reaching up for the shower head, she gave him a quick spray before he even knew it was coming, which resulted in a wildly flailing Kage… and that was about it.

Falling to the floor, the Shadow covered his face and made pretend gurgling sounds, one leg kicking out. It was nothing like a short circuit.

"Oh for goodness sakes, you're fine…" Naoto remarked as she put the shower head back up. However, taking a moment to stare down at her soaked Shadow, she couldn't help but feel like vengeance had been served. Too bad the rest of the Investigation Team never got this opportunity.

"You're cruel…" he muttered, sitting up and removing his sodden lab coat.

"Honestly, I'd call this rather tame compared to the torment that you used to put me through," she reminded, leaning down to pick up the coat, "Now then, get the rest of this off and get into the bath, please."

Kage crossed his arms and looked off to the side, "No, you."

"So be it, then," Naoto spoke in a casual voice as she brought her arms under his legs and back, lifting him up. The Shadow kicked a little when he saw the bathtub coming closer and closer, and then, without even having his clothes removed, he was plopped down into the water. With feline-like reflexes, his hands and feet clung to the sides of the bath and Naoto's shirt as he tried to scramble out. However, she patiently held him still until the tantrum subsided and he finally accepted that the water wasn't any danger. Sitting motionlessly, he stared up at her with a defeated look.

At least his clothes were going in the wash anyways. Forced to remove them herself, Naoto figured that Kage wasn't going to take any initiative when it came to baths. The only other option was to do it herself, which at least opened up the opportunity to understand him a little better.

Soaping up his backside, Naoto noticed a few areas under his skin that definitely felt inorganic. There were some smooth surfaces that didn't make sense as bones and tubes that were too large to be veins. With a childlike fascination, Naoto had to resist the urge to ask if she could tinker with his insides, if only for the fact that it sounded like a violation of his cyborgy rights. She chuckled softly upon realizing, "You're pretty similar to Sousei, then. You'd probably get along well with him if you tried."

Kage stared forward at the wall and took his wash as punishment, giving no response.

Naoto pat his back lightly as she ran some water down to get the shampoo out of his hair, "Maybe you'd be able to turn into a motorcycle, too," she joked.

Kage puffed out his cheeks again, "This better be a good present…"

Snapping her fingers, Naoto nodded, "Yes, the present. I think you'll like it." She couldn't lie about that now, not after putting him through such misery. Hanging up the shower head, she got to her feet and pulled off a large towel from the rack, opening it up, "Alright then, all done."

Kage's eyes sparkled as he jumped out of the bath and into the towel, happy to be out of the water's terrifying grasp. Patting his hair dry, Naoto hugged the towel around him and unplugged the bath, leading him back across the hall to her room. "Take a moment to get dry. I'll go get your present," she stated. Kage rolled around in the towel on her bed with excitement. He envisioned a supersized death-ray with a saw blade launcher and, oh oh, maybe it had an awesome internal voice that said creepy stuff like 'the end is nigh' and 'Kage is the coolest'. Yeah, that sounded pretty good. And if it could be cadmium plated with KAGERAY engraved into the side, that'd be the icing on the cake right there.

When Naoto returned with a hamper of clothes, he was immediately muddled. Where was Kageray? "These are all for you. We can't assume how long you'll be here, so we might as well make preparations now in case it becomes a lengthy stay," she spoke out, setting the basket down in front of him.

"Oh, clothes," Kage answered, at first looking unimpressed and disinterested, but that quickly changed when he realized whose clothes these used to be. Even after they had been washed, there lingered a fragrance so faint yet his senses could still pick it up. Kage lunged into the pile and one by one, some clothes were excitedly tossed into the air, "Kanji-kun!"

Naoto blinked, "Oh, you can tell?"

Kage poked his head out from the pile, a shirt dangling off his head, "They smell like him." Sitting up straight, he pulled the shirt down over him and squealed over how unfit the size was. In other words, it was perfect.

"So let me get this straight… You can't taste, but you can smell," she questioned.

"Cha."

"And even though you can smell, Shadows don't have odors."

"Cha."

"And please forgive my asking… but… Shadows don't conceive, yet you're capable of sex," it was another bother she had to get off of her shoulders…

"Cha!"

"… I am at a complete loss as to what determines your human functions," Naoto admitted, shaking her head.

"Me too," Kage confessed as he tried on a pair of pants. He would at least need his belt back…

Finally dressed again, the little Shadow adorned a baggy dark violet shirt with a skull and crossbones on the front; one of Kanji's favorite symbols. Additionally, he went for the basic blank pants for now. Looking over at himself, Kage wrapped his arms around his sides and self-snuggled, "I miss Kanji-kun…"

Naoto exhaled as she checked the watch on her arm. It had been a busy enough morning, and yet she still had to get herself ready for school. With enough time, she hoped Kage would learn to become a bit more responsible and independent. She couldn't imagine what would happen if he and Kanji were to meet again, though… After what had happened the first time, she honestly worried and thought that maybe it was best if they stayed a good distance away from each other. But perhaps Kage could be taught self-restraint as well. "Hn… Well, it is Friday today…"

Kage looked up with a tilted head.

"Hm… let me explain. There are seven days in a week, and two of them we have off from school. Those two days are tomorrow and the day after. Then it's back to school for five days," she explained while getting her things together and changing into her uniform.

"Then… then can we see Kanji tomorrow?" Kage asked with brightened eyes, "Since you don't have school?"

Naoto stared off into the mirror as she fixed the ribbon of her outfit, "… I'll ask. For now, though, it's going to be another day in this room for you. You're not getting too bored yet, are you…?"

Kage shook his head a little, "Nah… I still have lots of Holmes to read," he reminded, wiggling on the spot excitedly. That and plenty more internets to eat…

Softly smiling, Naoto reached down and ruffled his short hair, "Then I'll see you when I get home."

* * *

As the sound of the lunch bell broke the silence of students in focus, Naoto heard a small thud coming from the desk behind her. Peering over her shoulder, she noticed Touko with her head pressed against the wood of her desk, one hand gripped at her long auburn hair. The girl had snuck into class somewhat late that morning, so the two of them had no time to talk before classes. Now was the time to question why.

"Are you not feeling well?" Naoto asked, turning her chair around to face Touko's desk.

Touko's other hand was gripped onto her phone, which she briefly glanced at as she looked back up. Her frowning face remained, head shaking, "Eh… I have no reason to complain about the stupidity of the internet… but my MyPlace account got deleted somehow," she sighed, "Honestly… how did they even mess up that badly? They say all their backups got fried, too."

Naoto rested a hand against her cheek, having a hard time showing sympathy, "That's it…? That's why you're late for class?" Naoto wasn't one to care so much for social networking sites. While she admitted that they were convenient, such things had become an extreme obsession for many people; so much that it was impossible to stay caught up unless you yourself were equally obsessed.

"Well, no, not really… Rather, I heard something at the station this morning that got me completely bugged out. And uh… it sort of involves you, so…" Touko looked off to the side, rubbing the back of her head.

"Me?" Naoto questioned, trying not to make any indication that her stomach had just dropped. Heavily.

Touko's eyes glanced around the room. There were plenty of students that chose to eat lunch in class, so the room was still half full of people. The girl was already making it pretty obvious that she didn't want to speak of such things out in the open, "Can we go somewhere else for this? I don't want to scare you or anything, but it shouldn't be public knowledge."

"Sure?" Naoto replied as she stood, allowing Touko to lead her out of the room, down to the first floor, and out of the building altogether. In a tiny little alcove at the side of the school which was pressed up against the bordering forest, the two were completely secluded from the rest of the student body. Naoto couldn't help but think that this was a little extreme, but whatever suited Touko's tastes.

Pressing a cigarette between her lips and holding up a lighter, Touko looked to her friend, "You don't mind?"

"Not really," Naoto answered, side-stepping until she was no longer downwind of the incoming smoke. She stood in silence with her back against the wall as her friend took a moment to ease her apparent stress.

Exhaling, Touko decided to break their pause, "Alright… So there's one thing that everyone already knows, and that's the fact that Goro Yagi died last night. For no reason, apparently… or at least, that's all the news can say until his autopsy later today. Until then, no one's got any clue…" she spoke, turning her head towards Naoto, "Except Tetsuma… who knew that the last two people to see Mr. Yagi yesterday were you and that friend of yours. That's something that only a few people know..."

Naoto's fingers clenched against her folded arms, "You're not saying… that they suspect we killed him? That's ridiculous…!" Unfortunately, she couldn't deny the terrible irony that… in a way, a part of her had.

"Look, I don't believe him… most of us don't," Touko spoke, trying to keep a calm demeanor, "But the moment he heard Goro was dead, he remembered the fact that you visited the hospital to essentially shut him up about your friend's case."

"Because of that…!? Killing someone is the most absurd defense against lawsuit…! One would be in even greater trouble if they were found out as the murderer. Would I honestly risk something like that to prevent Goro from saying 'waahh, he punched me in the face' in court?" Naoto huffed. It was becoming clear as to why Touko had chosen to come outside to say this. Naoto could feel her voice rising, and there was no way she'd be able to hold it back in a classroom.

Touko took another long hit of her cigarette and shook her head, "No… but to them, there's got to be a reason for everything. There's no such thing as a spontaneous death to them, even if it does happen sometimes. But that's what the autopsy is for…" she spoke, head tilting down, "Again, no one else but the hospital staff saw him after you left… so if they find any trace of poison or the sort in his system, you could be in some deep shit."

Naoto's chest pounded. They were looking for poison… and thankfully, they weren't going to find anything of the sort. But what did a body that had been consumed by a Shadow look like after the fact? Mentally, her fingers crossed that there would be no difference at all. Tetsuma could gossip all he wanted. But unless there was hard evidence that she had done something to Goro, then it would be written off as nothing more than a coincidence. "Why would he blame me...? Doesn't it make more sense to suspect the nurses?" Naoto grimaced as she spoke under her breath. Touko merely shrugged. Both of them knew that throwing the blame around would make them no better than Tetsuma unless there was, once again, evidence.

Letting Touko finish off her smoke, Naoto pulled out her phone and decided to give Kanji a call about the issue. She assumed he'd be on lunch break about now if their schools were alike at all. However, after waiting through six rings and being put onto voicemail, she figured that probably wasn't the case. Instead of sending such controversial information to him by voice, she hung up and decided to send a text instead. The last thing Kanji needed was to have his phone blare out 'hey guess what, we're being suspected of murder' in public.

As Touko stored away the butt of her cigarette, a masculine voice called out from around the corner. Both Touko and Naoto stood up straight from surprise, but upon turning to see who it was, they were relieved to see that it was just Sousei. However, it was unusual to see him out and about at this time of day. Even with the dark black jacket that he chose to wear in humanoid form, there was only so much that he could cover. It was very obvious that his legs weren't human, nor was the stoic stare in his synthetic face.

"Howdy, Wheels," Touko said brightly, giving him a wave.

Naoto exhaled strongly, "You don't usually risk walking around so openly. What's the matter?" As if she had to ask…

Sousei first nodded to Touko, and then returned his attention to Naoto, "I've received a notification from Mr. Tsuge to take you to the station after school. You don't have any other plans, do you?"

"Why am I not surprised? … Yes, alright, I'll go," Naoto answered. It was going to be a long evening full of explaining herself, it seemed. She would have to address everything that Goro had said to her, even if all that talk about ghosts and drugs sounded completely crazy to Tetsuma. But maybe that was for the best. If she illustrated how psychologically ill Goro had seemed, then there was no way that she could have seen him as a threat. And thus, she would have had no reason to kill him. It was her only hope in getting Tetsuma off her back…

If he believed her, anyways.

* * *

Kage was startled from his book-worm focus as Naoto burst into the room, his welcoming smile falling as Naoto dropped silently onto her bed. Shuffling into the edge of the mattress, he made room for her and closed the book with a bookmark, putting it aside. The Shadow had worried throughout most of the day… Usually Naoto didn't come home this late, but it was almost 9-o-clock, she had missed dinner, and everyone else had already gone off to bed.

"Uhm…?" he tried to break the silence as he stared down at his fallen comrade.

Naoto shook her head against the bed sheets and sighed, "You…"

"Me?" Kage blinked.

"You… really do make a mockery out of my arcana, don't you? You're nothing close to fortunate…" she mentioned, staring up with a needle-like gaze, "You've been nothing but bad luck ever since you came here… I didn't think it was possible, but indeed, you've managed to completely overthrow my career in just three days. And on top of that, we're nowhere close to figuring out how to recall you back into me!"

Kage kept his lips sealed, brow furrowing at her words.

Naoto continued, "Nor can we easily figure it out! I was… resigned from the Shadow Extraction case as a suspect of murder. Not with any hard evidence, but it was reason enough to keep me away from the case. Any normal detective would say 'So be it' and shrug it off because it's no longer his problem, but… it's still my problem. Our problem," her eyes leered, "But now we're walking on thin ice… If I get caught investigating this case on my own, then they'll only have more reason to suspect me. They'll think I was involved with this from the very beginning… and with that, my career is ruined."

Kage peeped up in a small voice, "But you did kill Goro…"

"YOU killed Goro," Naoto snapped back, fingers clenching the bed sheets. She couldn't admit to it… Even if it was an accident and even if it wasn't she who physically did it… the blame could go to no one else.

Kage lowered himself, "But… I am…"

Naoto interrupted him with a quick sigh, "I know… I know… You are me. You are the gun, but I was the one who pulled the trigger… Sorry, I shouldn't be talking as if any of this is your fault… I'm just frustrated."

Kage tilted his head down and lifted one corner of his mouth. He enjoyed the gun analogy.

Naoto closed her eyes and shuffled on the bed, sitting up properly, "I do have a question for you, however… Biologically speaking, what exactly did you take from Goro last night…? You say you took his thoughts, but what does that even mean?"

Kage put a finger to his lips, "Well… I guess it's a bit complicated… See, the human nervous system is full of bioelectrical pulses," he began, "This electricity has the possibility to produce… I guess you'd call them 'thought-reactions'. I am simply able to intersect this process and register the reactions into my own system. However, doing so seems to strip the bioelectricity from its original host," he spoke as if he had just learned that last night, "Causing the human system to… shutdown?"

"So, you ate his bioelectricity… And nothing else?" she questioned further.

"That's right, why?"

Naoto tented her fingers together, "I received the result of Goro's autopsy today while at the station… It's the only reason why they feel that it couldn't have been me, because it was far too bizarre to be a human intervention. They still can't explain how it was possible but… they opened him up and he burst open like an unpoked potato, releasing some sort of putrid gas. If it weren't for his bones, he might have completely deflated… there wasn't much else in him. Many of his organs were either completely missing or shriveled up."

Kage tilted his head in confusion, "I didn't do that…. And that's not what's supposed to normally happen when people die either, right…?" Even with a limited knowledge of humans, he was at least aware that eating someone's bioelectricity and eating their organs were two completely different things. They wouldn't just shrivel up and go gassy overnight. It was entirely unnatural.

"No… In fact, from what you've told me, he shouldn't have been very different at all. Just… a passed away body," she spoke. Just what she needed, more conundrums. It was nice getting all of these problems to chew through, but when the vast majority of them were paranormal issues, it wasn't as if science could solve anything for her. She turned to Kage, "Do you have any thoughts as to why he ended up that way? Anything else from his mind?"

Kage lidded his eyes and sifted through that thought. He came to realize just now that there was nothing he could easily learn about Goro unless he was specifically asked or thought about it. Otherwise, how would he know to access that thought? Mind reading wasn't that easy. "It seems… he wasn't aware of it happening. But I think his brain was the last thing to begin deteriorating, hence perhaps why he became so… odd… Actually, I'm willing to believe that he wasn't always such a nutcase."

Naoto looked over, "You're saying that this began before he even died? How could he have lived without his organs like that?"

Kage tried to find an answer, but to no avail, "I don't even know what that gas was… but it might have been keeping him alive. If the specialists managed to capture any of it, maybe they could have done some studies?"

Naoto shook her head. No one had expected Goro to just pop open like a balloon. Even if the thought had crossed their minds, the gas would have dissipated by then, "Well… I'm at least glad to know that it wasn't you who caused it. You can imagine how disturbed I was…"

"I don't even have to imagine…" Kage frowned. As the conversation seemed to peter off, he glanced from side to side before asking one more thing, "Did you… talk to Kanji today…?"

Naoto winced at the question, "I worry about that… I assume he must have seen the news and knows what happened. I tried to call him about it, but there was no answer… and he has yet to reply to my text. Tomorrow, we'll go and make sure that he's safe, alright?"

The Shadow's expression brightened a little, "We?"

Nodding, Naoto inched a little closer and for once found herself hugging around Kage instead, eyes closing. They both needed the comfort. "Sorry for yelling… I know what you are and I can't change that. All things considered… you've been a good Shadow…"

Kage nestled down into the covers and took a moment to watch over his host as she gradually fell asleep. Naoto was looking far more at ease than she did when she first came into the room. She just needed to vent… it was understandable. Though he felt some pride in the last thing she said, he also felt a little… reserved. 'All things considered'? It made it sound like she didn't have very high expectations in terms of him being… good. At the very least, he was trying… Most Shadows couldn't confess to that.


	7. Chapter 7

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

April 13th, 2013, Saturday

Drip…

Naoto's eyes opened in response as something fell against her cheek and continued to trickle downwards. The room was still dark with very little light coming in through the window. It couldn't have been any later than four in the morning… It wasn't time to wake up yet. However, something had definitely dripped against her. Squinting her eyes, she adjusted her vision and noticed that there was indeed something above her. At first it was nothing more than a black, hardly recognizable mass in the darkness of the room, but as a pair of golden eyes opened and lit up, the mass became recognizable as Kage. Straddled over her torso, his hands gripped at the sides of her pillow and a wide, mutated smile stretched across his face from ear to ear.

"I did it…" he spoke in a quiet tone, breathing hard with accomplishment.

Naoto blinked a few times as she rubbed her eyes, "What did you do?"

The Shadow let his grip go and sat up straight, arms outstretched at his sides, "I fixed it… I fixed everything. There's no need to worry anymore," he remarked, eyes widening, "You don't need to be sad now because… I've made it all better. All those people who talked down to you because of who you were… they won't mess with you anymore."

Naoto gave him a perplexed look; and it was then that she noticed the source of the speck on her cheek. Something was dripping down from Kage's lips and the corners of his eyes… At first she would have assumed they were tears and slaver, but as his eyes lit up his face, she could identify the red hue as nothing else but blood. Shuffling up into a proper sitting position, Naoto pushed Kage away and snuck out from between his legs, "W-what's with you…? I didn't ask you to fix anything."

"Which is why I'm such a good Shadow…" he said, leaning forwards until the stained tip of his nose pressed against hers, "Praise me?"

Naoto shook her head and inched farther away, unsure of what to make of his behavior. However, as she tried to get away, she noticed a great deal of difficulty when it came to moving her legs, as if they had fallen asleep on her. Kage wasn't pressing down on her legs, but she could barely get them to work.

"Don't move so much, you haven't healed yet," Kage forewarned, holding down her sides with his hands.

However, unnerved by the situation, Naoto continued to writhe under the covers until all at once the sheet was kicked off the side of the bed. If you would call it a kick, anyway… She certainly had nothing left to kick with. Staring down with a paralyzed gaze, Naoto saw that her legs had been replaced with an entanglement of cords and metal tubes that protruded from her eviscerated midsection. Acting as appendages all their own, the artificial entrails wriggled and twitched across the mattress. Kage lowered down the bed and tried to keep the tubes contained, but they continued to lash under the force of Naoto's own panic.

"W-… w… No…NO!" Naoto's voice choked in her throat as she clung to the side of the bed and tried to distance herself from the monstrosity. Falling down to the floor, her fingers gripped at the soft carpet and she struggled towards the bedroom door, the metallic entrails slithering behind her.

Kage seethed from his spot on the bed, sitting in a collection of surgery blood which remained pooled in the center of the sheets, "How… How can you not be happy…? I've done everything for you…!" he shouted out, though Naoto made no effort to turn around and look back at him. "I've made you perfect… I've made you just like … me…" As he continued to speak, his voice seemed to crackle and fade like an audio glitch, "W-why… You… can't…. ever… love m-"

His last recognizable word caught Naoto's attention as she reached up high and grabbed for the door handle, tears racing down her cheeks and neck. The moment she turned the handle, she felt it all end. A horrible throaty noise followed the enraged entity that lunged from the bed and grappled into her backside, sending a wave of pain up her spine that numbed her mind until there was nothing left of it … And then she woke up again.

With beads of sweat racing down her skin, Naoto shot up into a fully awakened state on her bed and stared forwards, still coming to grips with the fact that what had just transpired was nothing more than a bad dream. It had felt all too real… Her most recent fears had manifested themselves into a nocturnal anxiety that, even though she was perfectly safe now, it was still making her tremble. Everything she had witnessed in that dream had really hit home… no matter how unbelievable any of it had been. But then again, very little of her past week had been believable. It all started because of the one lying next to her right now, a creature which would happily break all sense of reality if she simply told him to. Perhaps she was uneasy about that fact… Or that her mind didn't know how to comprehend anything with everything flipped upside down like this. Lifting her hands and lowering her head, she pushed her damp face against the bed covers and sighed deeply, trying to collect herself.

"… Nn?" a small noise spoke up from behind her.

Sitting back up, Naoto glanced over her shoulder and noticed the same eyes as always staring at her, dimly lit with a tired look. Kage remained curled up with his nose dipped under the blankets, eyes squinting as he yawned once. Naoto's mind struggled to switch gears after that nightmare. Kage wasn't a threat right now… If anything, he looked positively cuddly. But he made her nervous regardless. Shaking her head, Naoto diverted her gaze, "Go back to sleep…"

Kage poked his face up from under the covers, "You're not alright…"

Lidding her eyes, Naoto rested back on the pillow and kept quiet, trying to ignore the conversation. It was nothing he needed to know about… All they needed now was sleep. However, she could feel him watching her, and he probably wouldn't go back to sleep unless he was sure that she was okay.

One of her eyes squinted open, "Do Shadows dream…?" she asked.

"All the time," he answered without skipping a beat, "Though lately, not so much… You might say that I'm the very fabric of your dreams, or at least, I used to be."

She looked up, "So you've seen all of my dreams, up until this week?"

"Most… Though I only remember them as well as you do."

"Hm…" Naoto answered, closing her eyes again.

After a brief pause, Kage's smile curled and he leaned in closer, "Sometimes they're embarrassing, aren't they?" he whispered.

Thankfully because of how tired she was, Naoto wasn't going to respond and play his little game. Instead, she opted on falling asleep. Kage waited for a response that wasn't coming, and smiled once he was sure that his host was once again resting, following suit.

* * *

While weekday mornings were often quite busy at the Shirogane estate with the bustle of early work and school waking everyone up well before dawn, the weekends were much more relaxed. It was now past ten-o-clock and Naoto was still out cold, most likely catching up on all the missed sleep from the previous days. However, despite all that, her Grandpa was already awake and ready to enjoy his day. His first order of business was to check up on his granddaughter to make sure she was alright since he had not seen her at all the day before. Walking up to the second floor, he lightly knocked on her door and waited for a response. Nothing… So she was most likely still asleep. Or maybe she never got home last night? Just to check, he nudged the door open slightly and of course, the first thing he happened to notice was that Naoto's bed was being occupied by two people: herself and a boy. Ah, they grow up so fast…

Tipping his head down, Grandpa mentally whistled and started to backtrack out of the room, but during his last glance into the room, he noticed that the boy had suddenly flipped over and was staring at him from the bed with brightly glowing topaz eyes. Grandpa was immediately taken back by two facts: those strikingly inhuman eyes, and the fact that the one with them looked perfectly identical to his granddaughter. The situation had become obvious.

"D-DEMON," he shouted, ready to grab the first thing on the desk next to him as a weapon if Kage got close.

"Cyborg, damnit!" Kage corrected, brows furrowed as he sat up. The normal raspy echo behind Kage's voice only alarmed her Grandpa further. As well, the yelling jostled Naoto awake for the umpteenth time. Nothing was going to let her enjoy a good nights' sleep, was it?

Noticing Naoto's lack of surprise as she rubbed her eyes and stared at Kage, Grandpa went from violent to confused. If anything, Naoto was more alarmed that her Grandpa was in the room right now. Their cover had been blown… but honestly, how long did she think she could keep this a secret? Four nights was already a surprisingly long amount of time to harbor a secret guest in the house. Grandpa's arms dropped to his sides, "What is this…!?"

Naoto put her hand into her sleepy face for a moment as she sighed, and then stared back up, "… Look, I have a lot to explain. This is… well, this is Kage," she remarked. The Shadow gave a small wave, and of course, the wave Grandpa returned was rather unenthusiastic. Naoto cleared her throat, "I realize that this is going to sound completely mad but… no, he's not human."

Grandpa leaned just a little closer, "That… is quite unbelievable. Did you just say 'cyborg'?" he questioned, "And why does it look just like you?"

Naoto answered in a completely unplanned way, "Well… you see… it's a rather long, unscientific story with many arcs that I think might be too much for you to swallow… Or at least, not all at once," her eyes glanced off to the side, "I'm sorry, grandfather… I'm making this sound as if you wouldn't believe me, yet the evidence is sitting right here… The more appropriate term for him is 'Shadow', that he is in fact a part of myself. Why he is here right now is something that I've been struggling to understand for the past few days…"

Grandpa's eyes went wide at one of the words she used, "Did you say… a Shadow?" Suddenly looking a lot less timid, Grandpa stepped into the room and stared closely at Kage, "This is not at all like what I've heard…"

"Pardon?" Naoto blinked, "You know what Shadows are?"

Kage made a few uncomfortable faces as Grandpa lifted a hand and started examining the Shadow's eyes, ears and mouth like a nosey doctor, "To a degree…" he looked up, "Perhaps this discussion would be best saved until breakfast. If you're hungry at all."

Naoto nodded and chuckled inwardly as Kage huffed at the old hands on his face. "Alright, I'll be down shortly," she spoke and waited for her Grandpa to leave before turning to Kage, "Well… look at it this way… you don't have to hide out in here anymore."

Kage had to admit, that much was a relief.

* * *

"Well… during my last few active years working with the police, it was more of a rumor amongst us that there were some companies studying supernatural forces, but most of us chalked it up as some sort of Area 51 conspiracy nonsense. Of course, you know of the Kirijo Group?" Grandpa asked, making sure that they were on the same page. It was amazing to think that their conversation had managed to settle down so quickly, and even more amazing that Grandpa already knew of such things.

"They're a leading company in robotics and specialized weaponry. Sousei was one of their earlier models," Naoto reminded the both of them of something many people already knew. However, the Kirijo Group's knowledge of Shadows was something they had kept under wraps.

Grandpa nodded, "Correct. Very few knew of this, but it was the fruit of their Shadow research that inspired many of their weapons and models. Not all… but… if you knew about the Shadows all this time, then I assume Sousei was given to you for that specific reason…"

Naoto nodded timidly, "Yes, actually… He wasn't just a convenient going-away present. He's a bodyguard of sorts, even though I doubted I would need his assistance at the time. Alas..." she glanced out the window of the kitchen, noting the driveway where Sousei remained parked. "So… you said that Kage isn't like the Shadows you heard of… What did you mean?"

Grandpa glanced across to the living room where Kage was meandering around, now able to freely explore things and comfortably sprawl across all the furniture like a typical cat would. "Well, he's… I mean, I can't say he acts like you, but he definitely looks like you," he answered, "… He, right?"

Naoto shrugged, "Apparently."

"From what I heard, Shadows were more of a… substance… made up of something completely unknown to the usual table of elements. Scientifically, there is no pattern to the things it reacts to or how it sustains its own energy. Physically, it resembles nothing more than viscid goo. The only organs it requires are a set of eyes and sometimes a set of limbs, but nothing as complex as a human body," he remarked, eyes watching the curious Shadow. It had been quite a few years, though… Perhaps they had evolved in that time.

Naoto knew of the Shadows that Grandpa spoke about. They had been dubbed Base Shadows, or Maya Shadows, and were known to be stable and unthreatening. However, it was their ability to transmogrify into a hostile state that made them dangerous. Chances were that the Kirijo Group had stripped their Shadows of that power in order to keep them contained. But even that rose further questions… "So there have been Shadows in this world before? Where did they get them from?"

Grandpa shook his head, "I was never told that… I'm only speaking from word of mouth, and rather old knowledge at that. All of this happened when you were very young, so I doubt you would remember… Though I'm sure you've heard of the Tatsumi Port Island explosion. The blame for that fell on the Kirijo Group and not too long after that happened did the rumors about the Shadows vanish," he spoke, his words full of reminiscence, "To think it was all real… I had my doubts, but this is… undeniable."

Kage continued to crawl around from couch to couch, moving about as if the floor was lava. It was an entirely childish play that would have been adorable if not for the fact that he was in a grown up body. At least he wasn't knocking anything over.

Naoto watched over him with a cautious eye while taking the time to explain to her grandfather everything that she knew from her side of the story. Their encounters with the Shadows had been completely set apart from the Kirijo Group's. Heck, it had happened in a completely different world. It was much easier explaining all of this to him than she had originally expected, and she was very glad to finally get it off of her shoulders. There were elements of her story that cleared up a lot of his confusion towards the Inaba case and how it had been solved, but there was only so much she could explain in one sitting. At least they had something exciting to talk about now.

Grandpa leaned back after the long story and rested a hand to his forehead, "You're right, that was a lot to swallow."

"Believe of it what you wish, but from our perspective, everything that happened was in fact real," Naoto remarked, standing to put the dishes from their breakfast away.

"One thing about your story didn't add up, though…" Grandpa stated, "I was already aware that Shadows are a product of a human's mind… It's just a guess, but I believe that the Kirijo Group might have obtained their Shadows right from the source. That they might have obtained them from real people in order to conduct their experiments… However, many of these experiments were fatal to the Shadows."

Kage looked up with a frown. He didn't like to hear of such things, nor where this story was going.

Naoto listened closely, picking out the contradiction after some thought, "If they had both the human and their Shadow and the Shadow died… then what happened to its host?"

Grandpa shook his head, "I heard that they were perfectly fine. No humans died during these experiments… as you claim they should have if their Shadow was destroyed."

Kage buried himself into one of the couches slowly, at an angle where he could not be seen from the other side. He immediately jammed his thumb into his mouth and bit down, shivering.

Naoto rolled her shoulders and stared with a disappointed face, "Kaaageee…"

"I didn't know…!" the Shadow yelled up from behind the couch, eyes darting from side to side as he scrambled for the right words, "I thought… maybe… I was important. You can't live without your heart, or your brain, or your lungs… so, so… how could you live without me?"

Naoto frowned, "You are important…"

Kage curled up, his sleeves covering over his face. Now he was at risk… All this time he had been a great inconvenience to Naoto. Keeping her from sleep, school, work… stressing her out over the death of Goro… and overall possibly ruining her career. He assumed that the only reason she tolerated any of it was because of his little white lie: that if he died, so would she. But that was far from the truth. "No… no… I'm a bad Shadow…" his muffled voice spoke, "Now that you know… you could end all of this if you ended me. I wouldn't be in your way… … But, but I don't want to die!"

Grandpa gave off a deep sigh. My goodness, this thing was whiney…

Naoto's hands came down hard on the counter, "That's not how it works!" she spoke loud at first, but then calmed her voice, "I care about you… alright? Death doesn't solve anything, especially when you mean so much to me… And you know how I handle things, right?" she said with a soft smile, "When something stops working, we fix it. We don't throw it away."

Kage continued to shiver, but at least he had her word… From now on, he needed to stop being so frivolous and damaging, even if it was in his nature. He couldn't make any more mistakes, "… Okay."

Finished with the dishes, Naoto thanked her grandfather and would make sure to continue her tales about the Inaba case later. She had covered the basics, but there was still so much to explain, such as how they came to fully suspect Adachi and how they had saved a child's life. Perhaps even Kage would enjoy these stories.

"Well then, we're going to be seeing Tatsumi-kun today, aren't we?" Naoto reminded her Shadow, who's head immediately perked up from behind the couch.

He clapped his sleeves together, completely redirected from his previous state of depression, "Kanji-kun!"

Sousei was waiting outside like a good bike and immediately fired up when Naoto stepped outside. His motor putted with surprise when he saw the Shadow following after her, though he was devoid of that distinguishable lab coat. There was no need to stand out like a sore thumb. Additionally, Naoto ordered Kage not to talk in public, and if it was absolutely necessary, to use a voice that didn't echo like a banshee scream. Lastly, the eyes were contact lenses. Really… really decorative contact lenses. Hopefully there wouldn't be any problems.

"Hold on, Sousei, I just need to give Tatsumi-kun a call," Naoto remarked with her cell to her ear. It was past 11 now and even though it was the weekend, she hoped Kanji would finally be awake and able to talk. After a few rings, there was thankfully an answer…

…

Naoto hung up after a very brief conversation, a look of worry on her face, "Well… Better get going."

"Is everything alright?" Kage questioned, following her onto the motorcycle.

Naoto checked over her Shadow to make sure that he was sitting correctly, bringing his hands to where he could hold onto her shoulders, "He sounded a little down… I assume he wants to talk about it in person. We were conveniently heading that way anyways. So, we'll find out."

Kage nodded and held on tight. However, as they set out down the road, the Shadow had to resist holding his arms out into the wind. To Naoto it was just another ride down the street, but inwardly… in Kage's perspective per se… it was flying. He took in all the passing sights with deep fascination. There was so much that he had only seen through Naoto's memories… Never before had he actually experienced them himself. It was like the difference between seeing pictures of a place and actually going there. This was her reality… and he had to admit, it was beautiful.

* * *

Driving up into the parking lot, Naoto found Kanji waiting at the entrance of the apartment building and she parked into a spot that was as close as she could get. Dismounting Sousei, she walked up and saw that Kanji's waving hand was frozen in the air, a shocked expression immobilized on his face when he saw who was walking alongside with her.

Kage bounded up the edge of the parking lot curb and made a mad dash for the other boy, throwing himself so hard onto Kanji that it knocked the breath out of the poor guy, "Kanjii-kuuun!"

"Whoa, whoa…! 'Sup little guy!?" Kanji asked with an awkward smile, one hand resting on top of Kage's head. He directed his attention to Naoto and whispered quietly, "You're just letting him out like this…?"

"I trust he won't be any trouble," she answered, "And for whatever reason, he won't stop inquiring about you… so I figured at least once wouldn't hurt."

Kanji nodded and turned to the building's entrance, trying to walk them through the doors with Kage clung to his hip. "Well, it's not like this is suspicious or anything…" Kanji spoke with sarcasm, though he wasn't about to pry the Shadow of its happy place, "But… I'unno. My cousin is here and he's probably going to wonder why this kid's voice sounds like a total train wreck."

Naoto had to slow down her walk in order for Kanji to keep pace, "He can cover it up… And we're going to say that he has a thing for contact lenses."

"And that he's your twin brother?" Kanji continued.

She nodded in reply, "Sure. That works."

Kanji's light sigh and nod reminded Naoto of why they were here. Apparently Kanji had something to say… but she could wait until he was comfortable enough to do so. Passing through the main entrance and into the lobby, Naoto noticed that none of the names on the occupancy board had 'Tatsumi' visible as a last name, so she wasn't sure which one could have been Kanji's cousin. Out of curiosity, she looked to him and asked, "And who is your cousin, by the way?"

"Oh, ehh, Daichi Nakamura. He's already graduated from Genkaku, but he's been apprenticing there to become some kind of medical staff. I say 'school nurse', but he insists on 'medical staff' for some reason," he said with a soft chuckle.

The mention of that last name made Naoto nearly trip over her feet. She had heard of it before… and honestly, it was a rather common last name, but the mention of it always caught her off guard. "Nakamura…" she whispered lightly, resting a hand underneath her chin. It was her standard contemplative pose, and Kanji recognized it immediately.

"Yeah? Somethin' about it?" he asked, looking to her as they entered the elevators and started making their way up.

Naoto pursed her lips together and found it difficult to tell Kanji what was on her mind. There were thousands of people with that last name, which made it nearly impossible to track down the one she knew. It was someone who had been let off the hook all too easily for a crime with irreversible repercussions… namely, the death of her parents. Indeed, the man who had caused the car accident which took her parent's lives had that same last name, Nakamura. "I knew a Makoto Nakamura… It was a long time ago, though," Naoto turned her gaze away, "The name just stands out sometimes."

"Makoto, eh? Hm…" Kanji tilted his head up, "There's no one in our family with that name."

Naoto knew it was so unlikely that it had to be impossible, but she was relieved to hear that anyways. "Well, of course. That would have been nothing more than a coincidence anyways," as Naoto spoke, the elevators opened up to their floor and each of them stepped out. As Kage began trotting ahead of the group, Naoto quickly walked to his side and took his arm in order to make sure that he wouldn't run off. In response, the Shadow clung to her side and nuzzled his cheek into her shoulder, walking with a happy bounce in his step.

"Aww, look, they're bonding," Kanji remarked, a few steps behind them.

Hearing that, Naoto tilted her head down and let go of Kage's arm, walking normally again.

Kanji made a small 'tch' with his tongue, "Oh, come on, it's cute."

"If a bipolar crybaby with extreme delusions of grandeur is your idea of cute then… by all means, enjoy the sight," she answered. Killjoy. Kage didn't seem offended by her name calling, though. If anything, he was proud of who he was and simply smiled more.

Kanji rolled his eyes with a smirk and pointed forwards, "There, it's the last one on the left," he said, stepping forwards past the two look-alikes and unlocked the door so that they could pass through. In stark contrast of the rather boring, white hallway that lead to it, the apartment room was very well furnished and comfortable looking. The living room that could be seen immediately seemed to be the most used location, with a very plush couch facing a wide TV and an assortment of DVDs and games to play. It was your standard dude-room, minus the uncouth posters and beer cans. There was none of that. What did stand out within the room was an assortment of luggage and a few boxes without labels resting on the floor next to the couch. They caught Naoto's attention immediately.

"Do you usually keep your luggage out…?" she asked.

"Well… no, that's sort of what I wanted to talk about," Kanji spoke, resting a hand behind his head as he slumped down onto the couch. Kage immediately followed after and crawled onto the seat next to him, snuggling up into his side. Kanji resisted entertaining the Shadow too much while Naoto watched them like a protective mother. He continued, "It's just for a couple of days… but I'm heading back to Inaba for the weekend."

Naoto looked up with surprise. It was the weekend now… Was he heading off so soon? "My, that was without warning," she remarked.

"Actually, it was decided just this morning. We got a call from Yukiko-senpai yesterday who said that… well, apparently something went down at my Ma's grave. They don't know when it happened, but it looks as if someone was trying to dig it up," he spoke. The start of the story seemed to attract the attention of the apartment's other resident who walked in from the next room.

"Hey, you must be Naoto," he spoke. It was Daichi Nakamura, a man who was clearly a few years older than Kanji and, even though he was simply a cousin, he looked quite similar to Kanji in many ways. One thing was the height. Were all the males in their family this tall? Aside from that, he dressed more formally and had naturally messy black hair that fell no further than his ears. "Heard about you a few times," he added, "Yeah, we're both heading over there to check it out and stay one night at the Amagi Inn."

Naoto's eyes squinted at the information she had received. Someone tried to defile Mrs. Tatsumi's grave… and so soon after her death? That was just all sorts of wrong. "I'm sorry to hear about it… I assume they don't know who did it? Were any other graves affected?"

Kanji shook his head slowly, "Nope, just hers…"

As he spoke, Daichi noticed the other individual who was now resting his head comfortably on Kanji's lap, arms wrapped around his hips. The man chuckled, "Got yourself a boyfriend finally, Kanji?"

"OI!" Kanji's gaze snapped in Daichi's direction and he glared. He was defensive as always about… certain labels, "He's just her cuddly runt of a brother. It ain't my fault that he's so clingy."

Naoto amused herself with the thought that… it probably was all Kanji's fault for making Kage this way.

Daichi waved a hand dismissively, "It's cool, it's cool… Hey, you work with the police, right? I'unno if you get days off or anything, but you've got friends up there in Inaba too, right?" he asked, "We've got space if you wanted to get away for the weekend."

Kanji nodded to Daichi's words. It was as if he was planning on asking all this time… but couldn't find the nerve to put his words together, so he made his cousin do it instead. This whole thing really did feel that choreographed.

Naoto tented her hands together. Was this really the best time to be getting out of the house…? Then again, considering how much Tsuge was breathing down her neck over Goro's death… perhaps this was a good time to do a little run away. "I would love to… but only if there's room for my brother, too?" she asked. Unfortunately, she couldn't just leave the Shadow with her Grandpa and not worry sick about it all weekend. Then again, this also meant that she would have to face the friends that she'd somehow managed to distance herself from over the past year… and with a little something extra clinging to her side. At least Kage's identity wouldn't be any sort of secret. Maybe this would help rekindle the contact they had all lost. "Plus I would need to pack," she mentioned.

Daichi rested a hand under his chin, "Huh, I think we've got space… But it's not like I'm hauling an SUV or anything. I can seat four people, but the luggage… We'll have to see about that. Either way, we'll just head back your way and you can take however long you need. No rush though, we're not going to see the grave until Sunday morning in case the trip there takes too long."

Naoto nodded, "It shouldn't be a problem getting there either way. If there's no room in the car, then I can ride there myself and just follow you."

As the two discussed over the details, Kanji stared down at the one resting in his lap and wondered if this trip would really be okay for Kage… He had only just gotten out of the estate today, and now they were planning a whole trip to another town with him? With that kind of concern in his mind, Kanji looked back up at Naoto who was busy in her own thoughts and wondered how much she really cared about her Shadow's wellbeing.

"I think we're good to go, then," Daichi mentioned, grabbing a couple of bags so that they could get the packing done now. Following his motions, Naoto grabbed one as well and Kanji nudged Kage back up. The Shadow had no problems with helping either. With four people carrying a two person's amount of luggage, they managed to get the job done in one round. Eager to go, the group made their way back to Naoto's with her and Kage leading the way on Sousei, who probably didn't realize that he was in for a long trip as well…

* * *

"Yep, just as I thought…" Daichi shrugged as the amount of luggage required for all of them made it impossible for more than three people to sit in the car. Well, unless Kage managed to cram himself into the trunk, but that would have been cruel and unusual. "You don't mind?" he asked, looking to Naoto who would have to ride separately.

She waved her hand dismissively, "I got to Yagokoro on him, and I can get back to Inaba just fine as well."

"Him?" Daichi lifted a brow at her wording.

Naoto's cheeks tinted red from surprise, "Ah- that's… You know, when people… put genders on inanimate objects… Like how a captain will call his ship 'she'…? … I always figured my motorcycle was male. That's all."

Kanji exhaled deeply. Nice save. If he wasn't currently stuck in bike form, Sousei would have been sweating artificial bullets at that slip-up.

In a quick attempt to change the conversation, Naoto turned to Kage and asked, "It's going to be a long drive… About three hours or so. Riding a bike for that long isn't going to be comfortable," she remarked, looking to the car they had available. "So… would you rather go with me, or with Kanji?"

Kage swiveled on the spot and rubbed his sleeves together. Did she actually need to ask…? "I want to go with Kanji-kun," he spoke, using the voice he had learned from Goro's memories for the first time around the other two boys. Kanji looked over with surprise to hear… a normal sounding voice.

Naoto mentally laughed at Kage's reply. The little traitor… But honestly, she didn't want to put him through such an uncomfortable ride, so she honored the offer, "Then go let him know."

Kage jumped up and down for a moment before excitedly running up to Kanji and wrapping his arms around him, "Kanji-kun, Kanji-kun! I'm going with you!"

Expecting it, Kanji had braced for the impact. One always had to brace for violent impacts around this child, "You are, eh? Well then…" he spoke, looking at the luggage piles within the back seats of the car. "I guess I'll put some of this in the front seat." With that, he decided to clear two seats in the back so that he could sit together with Kage… for safety measures! The last thing he wanted was a Shadow rummaging through all of their things while they were on the highway. With the space free, Kage hobbled into the middle seat where he wouldn't be any danger with the doors. Looking up, Kanji noticed that Naoto was busy with her own luggage, and took the brief chance to ask Kage a question as he slipped into the seat next to him. "Why d'you like me so much…?" he whispered quietly.

The boy grinned wide, his voice muffled behind his sleeves, "Because she does."

Kanji had a difficult time breaking the silence after hearing that. Was Kage just pulling his leg…? He stared at the other who had already clung to his arm again, cheek pressed into his shoulder. "She… doesn't like me 'that' much," he remarked. Definitely not as much as Kage had… expressed the night before.

The little Shadow shook his head a little and closed his eyes, "She just doesn't know it yet…"

Kanji stared forward and furrowed his brow. Yeah right… Naoto never put that kind of thing on her mind. It was completely unlike her… She was too married to her job to care about intimacies. Right? As Kanji mentally debated against Kage's words, his cousin entered and settled into the driver's seat. Naoto and Sousei were at the ready behind them, revved to go.

"I don't want to hear about bathrooms breaks after just 10 minutes, got it?" Daichi joked as he started up the car. The sound of the ignition opened Kage's eyes, and he watched down the driver's line of sight with a fixed stare. If no one needed to go to the bathroom now… then they were certainly about to. The moment the car started moving out of the parking lot, a shiver crept into Kage that Kanji could feel from his arm. He looked down at the boy who's shaking only got progressively worse.

"You fine?" Kanji asked.

Daichi glanced into the rear view mirror, but he couldn't see all that much with Kage cuddled so low onto Kanji. He continued to drive unless something was said…

Then, without any warning, Naoto was forced to halt as the car in front of her came to a sudden stop. Though the noise of the screeching car tires ceased, an alarming sound could still be heard from within and Kanji's door suddenly flung open. Shouting between Kanji and his cousin blared out as a wailing Kage tossed himself out of the door and gripped onto the pavement of the road. He lurched on all fours, teeth bared aggressively at the car as he emitted a shrill hiss. Naoto covered her ears and winced at the painful noise, "What are you doing…!?"

Similarly, Daichi gripped the sides of his seat and pressed his back into the driver's door, "The hell is this!?"

Seeing his host's frightened gaze on him, Kage lowered some more and stopped his violent hissing, converting it into pathetic whimpers instead. Getting back onto his two legs, Kage ran towards Naoto and hugged at her side, shivering hard. In an attempt to calm the Shadow down, Naoto leaned in close and pet the top of his head gently, "Shh…"

Catching his breath, Kanji poked his head out of the car and stared at the two, "What was that…!?"

"I think something spooked him… that's all," Naoto mentioned. Slightly calmed down, Kage nodded into her arm. That was one hell of an overreaction, though. From where he was, Kage motioned that he wanted back on the motorbike, and Naoto assisted him back on, "Do you not like the car…?"

Climbing on, Kage shook his head quietly. He didn't bother with any sort of explanation. It seemed like even he didn't expect the car to scare him so much.

"It looks like this is how it's going to be," she mentioned, looking back up to Kanji with a small frown and shrugged. For a bike, Sousei was very comfortable, but they would probably have to take frequent stops for Kage's sake since he was so new to the experience.

Kanji nodded and closed the door, staring forward at his cousin who was, unsurprisingly, at a complete lost for words. He tried to act nonchalant. "It's okay. He's going with his sister."

"It's 'okay'…? Did you see that kid? He bristled like a fucking wolf!" Daichi exclaimed. Was he the only one here that noticed how odd it was?

Kanji rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, sorry… he's uh… kind of an odd case. Has some sort of mental bipolar thing? You can never tell what'll set it off," he spoke, smooth as silk. "I guess today it's cars."

"Damn… warn me next time," Daichi huffed and looked forwards, resuming his driving. Kanji's family, thankfully, had a gullible streak in their genes. Kanji sat back in his seat and sighed with relief, not sure if he was prepared for the three hour drive ahead of them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

The rest of the ride went without a hitch. There were at least five stops along the way, each with Kage jumping off of Sousei and rubbing his numb rear end without any shame. And each time, he was offered a seat back in the car where he could sleep for the rest of the trip, but such offers were always met with refusal. He would endure the bike ride until they came to Inaba.

As they neared their destination, Kanji sent a message to the makeshift Investigation Team that was waiting for them there. It seemed like everyone was at Junes and eagerly awaiting their arrival. Unfortunately, the only one who wouldn't be there was Yu Narukami, the unanimously decided leader of the group who had also left Inaba for his home town. He had made frequent visits to Inaba within the past year, but on such a short notice, this time wasn't going to be one of them. The reason for their visit wasn't a pleasant one anyways…

The moment they crossed into town, Kanji could see Naoto behind them staring left and right at the buildings she remembered and all the new additions to the town that had popped up in the past year. However, much of it had stayed the same. A small place like this didn't change very often, and that was one of the charms about it.

As they made their way to the Junes parking lot, Naoto checked the clock on Sousei's dashboard. It was half past six now… The ride had gone on for much longer than expected because of the need for so many stops. But at least they were all here in one piece. Naoto had dedicated the entire ride to thinking up what she was going to say to everyone about Kage. Would they be hesitant about his existence? Or maybe they'd treat him like they did with Teddie and welcome him with open arms? Probably not… The first time they met her Shadow, he had shown nothing but aggression towards them. Naoto would have to convince them that he wasn't the same monster anymore.

As they found a good spot to park, Naoto heard a rather small, excited beep come from Sousei. His voice came through on the speakers and he spoke with a scripted tone, "Registering familiar entity. . . . ."

Kage stared over Naoto's shoulder as Sousei's dashboard showed a scanning signal that filled up like a loading bar. ". . . . . Entity confirmed, model generation three, Ai Kurogami."

"Kurogami?" Naoto asked as she stared down at Sousei, but then quickly tapped the top of his hood with a hand to silence him when she saw that Daichi and Kanji had parked nearby, "Alright then… If you need to go explore, then do so once Tatsumi's cousin is out of sight."

Sousei complied with a quick, standard honk as both Naoto and Kage dismounted and wandered over to the parked car. As Kanji stepped out, Daichi gave the group a wave and prepared to set off to do his own thing. He would unload their luggage once he got to the Amagi Inn, being the good older cousin that he was. The rest would join him later, but for now, they had old friends to visit.

However, the first thing to run at them from around the corner was an unfamiliar sight. Racing past them at full speed was a short girl with bleach blonde hair and ebony black eyes. Her short hair was held in a dark headband that had a transceiver of sorts hanging from its right ear. Most profound was that her lower half that seemed entirely mechanical with a set of tires hanging from her waist. Ignoring everyone else, she made a bee-line towards Sousei and latched her arms around his front wheel, "Onii-saaan!"

Kanji couldn't decide on whether to show surprise at the new face, or extreme relief that Daichi had already driven away. He was starting to doubt if he could keep all these little secrets from his cousin over the course of the weekend. He would be lucky if he did… Very lucky.

Sousei had a difficult time staying completely still, even if he was supposed to be an inanimate object… with wheels, mind you. Once he realized that Daichi was out of view, however, he quickly altered his shape to mimic the girl's humanoid appearance and threw her into a wide, brotherly hug, "Ai!" The girl simply jumped into his hug, laughing.

Naoto lifted a brow at the sight, "Ai? You have another sister?" she questioned Sousei. Goodness, it seemed like everyone had long lost relatives that she was finally meeting just now.

Sousei looked up with a lopsided grin. "Practically… We all consider ourselves siblings. However, Ai happens to be from the same generation as myself," he said, looking down at the girl who was barely half his height. He was curious about why she was even here in the first place, of course…

"It's nice meeting you again, Sousei," Ai spoke with a smile that stretched across both cheeks. Stepping back from him, she lifted her right arm and braced it under her left as it mechanized into the shape of a gatling gun that seemed positively massive in contrast to her little body. "But one moment, pleasey-please~ It's time to play!" she spoke, the joyous expression remaining on her face as she directed the aim of the weapon to the lab-coated character who stood at Naoto's side. The end of the gun lit up and produced a charge that torpedoed from the barrel in Kage's direction, causing the Shadow to throw himself for cover behind his host who, too, was knocked back from the blast. His cover down, Kage bounded away once more and grappled the side of the Junes building, eyes lit up. Emitting a droning hiss, he expelled a pair of misty red tendrils from his sides that propelled towards his attacker, aimed with the intention of disarming her. Of course, he would have to remove her entire arm to do so. Not allowing this, Ai leaped out of the way, and coincidentally… right into Sousei's unwelcoming hand. His large palm grabbed her whole face and she began to wildly flail on the spot.

"I care not about what you do to that creature, but you DO NOT fire at Miss Shirogane," he warned, fingers tightening.

Ai's flailing arms stopped and she whined pitifully, "I'm just doing my job, you dummy!"

Naoto had already recovered off the ground and she ran towards Kage with her arms outstretched, head shaking in order to make him cease. Obediently, but with a disgruntled scowl, the Shadow climbed down the side of the building and retracted the twin strands. Good thing no one was around to see that…

Oh, hold on.

Naoto stared over Kage's shoulder and noticed a small pack of people observing from a safe distance. She did a head count… Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Yosuke and Teddie… Yep, that's was an unfortunate entrance.

"Did I just see that? I just saw that," Yosuke stated bluntly, looking first at Chie and then back to the recent arrivals.

"Is that what I think it is…? Wait, hold up, which one here is even Naoto?" Chie questioned, her hands raised up to her cheeks as she sorted through the conundrum with squinted eyes.

Naoto's shoulders fell. Really, Chie…? Of course, with one in a lab coat and the other with hair flowing down the length of her back, neither of them perfectly resembled how she used to look. Well, Kage never changed, but he wasn't supposed to be here in the first place. "It's good to see you all again," Naoto began as she walked towards the group, "I'm sorry if you expected only Kanji and myself to show up… This is…"

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the little Shadow hiding for cover behind her back again. Crouched low, he stared out from her side and failed to show any excitement for being in this town anymore. He remembered these people… They beat him up! It hurt, they were mean, end of story. In fact, that Ai girl they had just met moments ago also tried to have a go at him. From his perspective, it was annual Beat-Up-Kage Day in this town and he didn't want to stick around. When everyone's eyes glanced at him, he brushed up against Naoto's backside and she could feel his shivering.

"It's… exactly what you think it is," Naoto finished off.

"Your… Shadow?" Yukiko stated. It looked like no one wanted to get any closer to it, either. Well, all except for one.

The moment Teddie realized what was in front of him, he jumped out from Yosuke's side and excitedly tried to pat his hand on top of Kage's head. Not allowing it, Kage continued to withdraw himself behind Naoto, and continued to step backwards and around her as Teddie feverishly waved his hand over the Shadow's head. Within mere seconds, Naoto had two Shadows scuffling around her, making circles that sped up until Kage could no longer walk backwards fast enough and he bolted away to Kanji's side instead. "Go away!" Kage whined with his arms wrapped around the other boy.

"Aaawww, but it's been so long! I was getting so beary lonesome; I was beginning to lose my bearings as a Shadow!" Teddie remarked, slowly leaning in close to his cowering kin, "I didn't think it pawsable that I would see another of my kind again. It's unbearlievable!"

Those puns… Kage's arms unwrapped from Kanji's waist and his fingers sunk into his cap violently, "MAKE IT STOP!"

Nearly everyone else who hadn't had the time to get used to Kage's chalkboard-scrapping voice had to cover their ears. It was unbearable.

Rise was the first to lower her hands, "This is a surprise… I had so much I wanted to ask you about how you've been and what you've been doing… and now I don't even know where to start."

"I think we all have questions…" Yosuke added on, "The most obvious thing would be… is it even safe?"

Naoto glanced one more time at Kage who reluctantly accepted a couple of pats on the head from an excited Teddie. At first he kept his eyes closed with irritation, but then slowly opened one and realized… that this was kind of nice. Before long, Kage was practically purring and nuzzling back into Teddie's hand. Naoto looked back forwards, "He has been with me for almost a week now and shows nothing but perfect obedience. He wouldn't hurt anyone unless ordered to or if he had to defend himself," she remarked, feeling as though she had to explain Kage's counter-attack on Ai as self-defense. "He is, quite literally, still my Persona… However, he is forced to take on this form in our world."

It was going to be a long story… One that she was speaking now for the second time today. As she explained, the group migrated to a far corner of the seating area where Kage wouldn't stand out too much. Thankfully, this story didn't have to be as in-depth since everyone was already aware of the existence of Personas and Shadows, but Naoto felt it important to indulge them on everything she knew about the Shadow Extraction case so far. She hoped hard that they would know something about it. Maybe the Shadow Extractions had hit Inaba as well? As likely as it sounded at first… no, no one seemed to recognize the term or behavior. Their primary interest was, of course, the oddity sitting in front of them right now.

Teddie sat up straight and announced, "I think it makes sense! It's really not that impossible at all. I managed to grow a body for myself, so I bet Naoto here did just the same thing. Aaand voila!" Being what he was, Teddie could already sense that his own physical make-up was the same as Kage's. It was the same method after all.

"Oh, eh…" Kanji looked up, "We call him Kage, actually. To avoid confusion."

Naoto hadn't realized it, but during the entire story, she had referred to Kage as 'my Shadow' and 'it', and never anything specific. Therefore, the cat was now out of the bag and… honestly, no one was really surprised.

"He? Huh." Yosuke mentioned once, and then the conversation immediately drifted elsewhere. Of course, there was plenty to talk about still.

Naoto lowered her head and smiled, "Either way, it is wonderful to see you all again. I apologize for not keeping up with everyone communication-wise… Perhaps from here on we can make sure that we all have convenient contact information and can break the ice again."

"Well, I did get a new cell phone," Yukiko spoke up.

At that, Naoto brought out her own cell phone and nodded, "Then we can begin with that." As they spoke, they transferred cell phone contacts through an automatic infrared. "Though, I realize I forgot to ask… Is there room as well for Kage at the Inn tonight? I understand that this is rather short notice…"

Yukiko laughed softly, "You'd be sharing a room anyways, right? If you need the extra futons, then we have them, though right now we have just the one room with one bed in it for you."

"That will be fine. Thank you, senpai," Naoto answered. Honestly, even if they managed to offer a room with two beds, Kage would probably insist on sleeping with her anyways. Fortunately, he wasn't uncomfortable, but he would probably never sleep without someone to cuddle into.

"And for Sousei…?" Yukiko added on. The android was no stranger to them since Naoto had received Sousei just before she left Inaba, but he had never had time to get in touch with anyone here. They almost didn't expect him to come either.

Sousei raised his hand, "I am fine in the parking lot. I have no needs that would cause me to be an inconvenience. So, whatever works out best."

Kanji looked up, "Hey, it's cool if you want to hang out with Daichi and me for the night. If it's more comfortable or whatever… you might as well, huh?"

Sousei tapped the tips of his fingers together and nodded slightly. He was comfortable either way, really. Sometimes he slept inside the Shirogane estate, and sometimes he stayed in the driveway for convenience. Sometimes he wasn't even there in the mornings because he'd get a radio feed about some hot crime chase in the middle of the night and would leave to check it out. Sousei did what Sousei did. "Also, I believe we haven't inquired yet…" he mentioned, looking to his left hip where the little robot girl clung to his side, "Exactly why is Ai here?"

"Probably the same reason why you're with Naoto, Sousei…" mentioned Rise, "Since both she and Yu-senpai left, we've been pretty low in Shadow-fighting morale. Not that there's been a need for it since the incident with Labrys… It's really been so long… But you never know, I suppose. She was dropped off by someone from the Kirijo Group and she's been working here at Junes for almost a week now."

"So just recently?" Naoto tilted her head.

Rise nodded, "Yes… I don't understand the timing either, but with you here talking about your current case and how it's related to the Personas…"

"Maybe the Kirijo Group knows," Naoto cut in sharply.

"Or it's been going on for a while and your police force just clued into it now," Yosuke mentioned, waving his hand, "Why wouldn't the Kirijo Group know about it if it's related to the Personas?"

However, Naoto was already caught in thought. The Kirijo Group would be of great assistance if they knew anything about the Shadow Extraction case, but the only headquarters she knew of were located around the Tatsumi Port Island region, and that was quite a ways away from both Inaba and Yagokoro. It would be a whole other vacation just to visit there for a little while. Additionally, if it was so far away, would they really have any knowledge of the case in Yagokoro City? She continued to ponder over these thoughts, lost deep in them until she noticed a hand waving slowly in front of her face. Blinking, she broke out of her thought-bubble and sat up straight, "Pardon me."

"Anyways… We'll help as best as we can, but this wasn't the original reason for why we gathered here, right?" Chie spoke up, her eyes drifting over to Kanji.

"Yeah…" he was reminded, and tilted his head down.

"It's pretty late now so we'll check it out tomorrow… If it's alright, we should probably get everyone set up at the Inn now so that we can get a good night's rest," Yukiko reminded. There would be no sleeping in. They would have to deal with the issue at Mrs. Tatsumi's grave in the morning if they wanted a comfortable amount of time to make the trip back home.

In agreement, they all made plans to make it back here at the Junes Food Court for no later than 10 in the morning, and everyone went their separate ways. Yosuke stayed at Junes with Teddie and Ai to finish up closing the store, Chie and Rise both went home, while Yukiko, Naoto, Kanji, Kage and Sousei all made their way to the Inn so that they could meet up with Daichi.

* * *

Thankfully, by the time they arrived, their rooms were set and their luggage was left upon their beds. It was already close to nine in the evening and they could head off to bed at any time they wished, but as they made their way down the carefully decorated hallways towards their rooms, Kage halted at one of the windows.

"Is that… fog?" he asked, looking out the panels of the window and into the darkness where he could see a faint cloud of fog lifting up and dissipating into the colder sky. Its source could not be seen, since there were large, raised walls for privacy.

"That's steam," Naoto answered him. "It's coming from the hot spring. The waters are so warm that it dissolves into the air as tiny water droplets."

"Why is there hot water? Is someone making coffee?" he questioned further.

Naoto couldn't help but grin at Kage's hard-boiled deduction. If there was no other answer, then at least a detective always had his coffee, "No, people relax and bathe in it."

Kage lowered down and winced, "That sounds painful…"

"Naah, feels good," Kanji replied, patting the little Shadow on his back a few times, "You should try it."

Naoto had yet to tell Kanji that Kage… didn't exactly have a strong fondness for baths and water. If he couldn't handle the heat either, then it would probably be some kind of torture to put him in those hot springs. Still… Kage looked up to Kanji with positively beady eyes, "Maybe… if Kanji is there with me?"

"Nnnnice try," Naoto remarked and took Kage by the shoulder, bringing him back close to her. She trusted Kage with most things… but not with leaving him alone with Kanji. "The hot springs are separated by gender and I wouldn't be able to go in with you. So…"

Overhearing their conversation, Yukiko looked over her shoulder at them, "It's not a busy night… honestly. I'm sure I can reserve a spring for you if he wants to try it for a little while…" her eyes drifted over to Kanji, "… during the women's hours."

Kanji shook his head, "I get it, I get it. I'll take a dip later on my own time." Utterly cock blocked by two women, that's just how it had to be. N-… Not that he wanted any time in the hot spring with the two Naotos. No, of course not.

"Unless it's a problem, I might join you as well," Yukiko added on.

Hearing that, Kanji was baffled as to why Yukiko would be comfortable skinny-dipping with a male Shadow and not with him. Well, okay, it was technically just Naoto and another Naoto in there… still, damnit. And in all this hustle and bustle about hot springs… Kage hadn't even agreed to anything yet. It looked like he was having his night planned out for him anyways. For some reason, though, the sight of the steam was calming and he didn't seem as reluctant as he probably could have been.

* * *

"See? It's not so bad," Naoto said as Kage adjusted, talking his first steps into the waters.

He now understood why they were called hot springs, and because of that he was far more alarmed about the heat than the water itself, "I… I guess it's okay…" As always, he was surprised that the liquid didn't cause him any electrical harm.

Yukiko kept her eyes averted until Kage had fully submerged himself, which took a patience-draining amount of time, "So much of what we thought we knew… It was wrong, wasn't it?" she spoke into the air.

"Wrong?" Naoto replied as Kage finally dunked down with the water up to his shoulders, his cheeks going flush as he tried to get used to the 'soothing' heat.

"Your Shadow… How easily are you able to forget about what happened?" she spoke in a quiet voice, "I'm sorry… I didn't want to mention it, but I think everyone sensed a bit of doubt when you said that… this… was alright." Is this why she wanted to join them alone…? She was talking about Kage, and he was having a difficult time droning out what she was saying. He knew she wasn't trying to be rude… but everyone knew what he had almost done to Naoto two years ago.

"Yukiko-senpai… Do you not trust him?" Naoto questioned, looking between the two. "Regardless of what happened before, he also saved my life many times. All of our lives, even…"

"That was your Persona… Ai wouldn't have attacked anything that she didn't deem a threat. Like all Shadows are…" Yukiko turned her gaze back to Naoto, "Aren't they…? Though they have the capability to become something greater, like Personas or even humans, they're hardly the same thing as Shadows… But…" she bit her lower lip.

"But?" Naoto insisted she go on, even if it wasn't what she wanted to hear.

Yukiko shook her head, "But… you're disproving all of that. That maybe there is something good within them. They're not just reflections… but creatures that are actually alive and capable of making their own choices."

Naoto felt the need to remind her, "Are you forgetting about Teddie? From what you told me before, he was never a bad Shadow. He willingly turned human, but there was a period where he was a full Shadow and he still sought to help us even then."

"No one knows what made Teddie the way he is… He seemed like the only exception, yet even he doesn't know the full details of his past. But… because he was never bad, there was really no reason to doubt his kindness," Yukiko stated.

Naoto could see that Kage was uncomfortable with the conversation. Whether they were his feelings being hurt or Naoto's… that was irrelevant. She didn't know how to refute this in a way that could be backed up with hard evidence. There was none… only trust. "If I were to doubt him… then I would only be doubting myself. I won't deny what he is, and likewise, I won't deny that he is a part of me too," Naoto spoke from a wisdom that they all shared, "If you ever had to confront your Shadow again, Yukiko… I think you'd understand. They're closer to us than we first thought."

"You're probably right… I'm sorry if any of this sounded insulting. We were honestly surprised when you first showed up… and maybe a little worried. Since last time—" Yukiko was about to remind Naoto of something that no one wanted to hear, but she was interrupted by the sight of the little Shadow walking up to her and, disregarding both their nudity and comfort level entirely, he wrapped his arms around Yukiko and pressed his head into her front.

"I won't hurt you… Stop thinking that I will," he whispered into her tensed up shoulder.

Naoto lifted a hand to the two, "Kage… T-that's probably not helping."

Heading her indirect command, Kage lowered his arms and freed the poor girl, but he didn't back far away, "Choice is an illusion. We are all bound by the threads of fate that make us who we are. Even if we don't like the end result and attempt to change what is fixed in the past, the wheel will always come full circle and land on what fate decided for you."

There was an abrupt silence between the two as he spoke.

"I've never been unhappy about who I am. I would most certainly never wish to be anything but a Shadow. The only times that I regret these feelings… are when I hear words like that," he continued, his expression going sullen, "'How easily do we forget'…? We don't, but we move on anyways."

"Wheel of Fortune…" Yukiko emitted in a soft voice, to which Kage nodded. "You're right… I'm speaking as if change and difference are impossible… but there's always a chance if fate decides so." She stared down at the boy with an apologetic look. He truly was thinking for himself… Never before did he say anything that wasn't just a reflection of Naoto's confused thoughts and frustrations. He was her, and that's all it used to be. But now… he was acknowledging what he was and spoke from his own perspective. But how could a Shadow even have its own perspective? The more she thought about it, the more Yukiko realized that the worst insult to a Shadow would probably be to suggest that its self-awareness was, too, an illusion. "… I trust you," she spoke after a sentimental pause.

Kage could see something in her expression. What was it…? Pity? Understanding? She looked as if their earlier hug had ended too soon but didn't have the nerve to re-do it. Breaking the awkwardness between them, Kage took one step forwards and brought his arms around her again, remaining quiet. When Yukiko willingly returned the hug, Naoto knew that she wouldn't have to speak up against Kage this time. In fact, no one spoke. They didn't need to.

Naoto reclined back into the water as they embraced, wondering what this moment between all of them meant to her. She missed her old friends… It was unfortunate that she had to see them again over such a dreary matter and only for a short time, but it was certainly better than nothing. Kage made it very clear that Naoto wanted to be as close with them as she used to be, but all of them knew that this visit was only temporary. So, he was making the best of it… Naoto understood.

"What do you plan to do, then?" Yukiko finally broke the silence, leaning away from Kage.

Naoto closed her eyes, "I'll continue my search for the boy who pulled Kage from me… It's all I can do, despite the severe lack of leads. I've revisited the area where it happened several times and I never once found a trace of what happened. He even took an injury there, but the whole place seemed to be sterilized and cleansed of blood. We believe his name was Kon, but even that sounds faked," Naoto spoke, holding back her annoyance over all these facts, "The one thing drawing me to this individual isn't just the fact that he was the one to extract Kage from me… but because there has been so much cover-up of the whole event. He's undeniably someone important…"

"… He said something…" Kage spoke up, venturing back towards Naoto, "Goro said something about this."

Naoto's glance quickly shot between the two. Her story had barely touched on their involvement with Goro, since his death was the last thing that anyone needed to know about. She wasn't even sure if Kanji knew… He probably would have said something by now if he did. But if Kage knew something, then this simply couldn't be ignored, "Something you didn't tell me?"

"Goro said… that he let something slip. That we already knew all that needed to be known in order to find Kon," Kage spoke briefly.

"That man was hardly in his right mind…" Naoto remarked, "Still, a slip…?" Mentally scanning through their conversation, Naoto realized that she would probably have to listen to their recording of the interview again in order to pluck out what he could have possibly meant. There was a point where his lack of sanity exploded… Maybe it was then.

"I wish I could help…" Yukiko spoke in a quiet voice, "We're all so distanced from this case, though…"

Looking back up, Naoto shook her head, "I wouldn't want to involve my friends in anything that could be potentially dangerous, even if I could really use your brain power. Kanji, too, shouldn't have gotten this deep into it… but he was a potential victim. Please don't worry too much over it…"

Yukiko understood… Safety always came first, "Alright… But I'm not taking back my offer. If you ever need us…"

A light smile crept over Naoto's face. These truly were the most loyal of friends. That was something that years of distance would never break. "Let's rest on it, then. I'm sure Kanji has been waiting for his turn for some time now."

With a soft laugh, Yukiko nodded and reached over the edge of the hot spring for her towel, passing the others theirs as well, "I'm sure Kanji waits for a lot of things…"

Stepping out of the waters with Kage, both she and the Shadow immediately wrapped up in their towels and expelled visible breath into the cool air. She led the boy back to the change rooms and made no direct reply to what Yukiko had said. Just a simple, "Goodnight, Yukiko-senpai."


	9. Chapter 9

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

April 14th, 2013, Sunday

It was all kinds of odd… Especially the fact that no one had noticed the blatant vandalism to Mrs. Tatsumi's grave sooner. The spring grass was short and fresh, only having just sprung up since the snow in the northern town of Inaba had just recently melted away. It was the fact that there had been snow two weeks ago that might have explained why no one noticed the 7 inch wide hole dug down into the dirt of her resting place. There was a good chance that it had been covered up all this whole time, but that lead to a very unfortunate problem…

"When did it happen?" Chie was the first to ask Naoto, who's keen eye peered down into the small hole as she kneeled down onto the ground.

"It's not fresh… that is all that I can discern," Naoto admitted, "The melting of the snow and drying of the soil has already solidified the ground, and the sides of the hole may have been shifted due to the weather. But… if I'm not mistaken, I believe we can rest easy…"

"Easy!?" Kanji's clenched fists tightened as he stared at the marked grave site. Who would do such a thing? No one in this town was that disturbed! No one he knew, anyways… but the moment he did know… oh, they'd get it good. Right where it hurt, enough to knock 'em out cold. Totally!

"It was likely a weasel or marten trying to get some cover before spring," Naoto deduced. Kanji's shoulders dropped. Everyone's did. … Really…? That's all it was? Eyes glanced between everyone in the group, a stare that spoke out 'we didn't even think of that…' and Naoto continued, "It would be inconvenient to dig with a shovel this thin, and I believe that these sharp ridges in the sides of the hole are claw marks. It's a great coincidence that an animal would choose this spot to dig down… but… entirely possible nonetheless. From what I can see, though, it did not continue all the way… It's a straight hole downwards, but then it stops suddenly. I assume it sensed a solid object in the way and decided to dig elsewhere."

"Damn thing got us worried over nothing…" Kanji loosened his fist and settled down onto his knees before the grave.

"It's only a hypothesis…" Naoto reminded him, "The only way to make sure is to see if the coffin is still intact. But… that would involve…" she trailed on her sentence, already knowing what Kanji's answer would be.

"No," he spoke, "I ain't diggin' out this thing any further. I want Ma to be at peace…"

There was no denying it. Their main goal here was to just get everything back to the way it was, and for that reason Yosuke had brought a spare shovel from Junes' warehouse. Unfortunately there was no dirt on hand, so they would have to make due and flatten out the land as best as they could. At least the hole wasn't terribly large. Kanji took the shovel into his own hands and everyone slowly distanced themselves from the location, giving him some alone time at his mother's memorial spot. That was the plan, anyways… Kage remained where he was and once he noticed that everyone was walking away, he thought it was a downright shame that no one had offered to help. Flopping down next to the grave, Kage rolled up his long sleeves and pushed a bit of dirt into the hole. Already feeling accomplished, he looked up to Kanji with a wide smile, but Kanji only returned an emotionless glance.

Noticing that Kage wasn't following her, Naoto retraced her steps back to the grave and tried to help the Shadow up, "Let's give him some space…" she spoke quietly.

Kage held a confused look as he was taken by the sleeve and stood back up, "Why?"

"…" Naoto had no immediate answer. It was respect, that's all it was… If you had it, then you had it. If you didn't… at a time like this… well, some would say that you were inhuman.

"… He can stay," Kanji spoke out, his eyes focused on the job at hand, "… If he wants to, anyways."

Naoto glanced over her shoulder and, without question, let go of Kage's sleeve gently. She looked her Shadow in the eye and allowed him to him make his own choice. If Kanji so wished for the company right now, then who was she to deny that? She wouldn't be far, anyways…

With a little smile, Kage dropped back down to his spot next to the grave and simply watched Kanji as he caved in the hole, trying not to disturb too much of the surrounding grass. Even in silence, he was happy to be spending time with Kanji, though the more he looked up to the other boy's face, the more he realized that Kanji… was upset. Sitting with his feet together, Kage gripped the toes of his shoes and squeezed nervously.

"… Are you sad?" Kage asked, breaking the silence long after Kanji had already finished filling in the hole.

For a while, Kanji was just standing there with his chin and hand perched above the shovel's grip, staring down at his mother's resting spot. "It's hard not to be… when your folks are gone…" he answered in a low voice.

Kage blinked for a moment at the grave, and then back up at Kanji.

Kanji stared down, "Sorry, but… you know what that's like, don't you?" he asked, "Naoto's an orphan too… so…"

Kage's brow furrowed as he thought about it. Thinking so far back proved to be very difficult… "I don't know… Isn't this how it's always been?" he pressed his nose between his knees and clenched his eyes shut, trying very hard, "I don't… remember them."

Kanji gave a small frown and shook his head, "Hey, don't worry about it… It was a long time ago." Though he said that, he had serious doubts that Naoto would outright forget her parents. She would always speak so highly of them. How she wanted to follow in their footsteps and how much they meant to her… Kanji could only assume that Kage just wasn't around back then. Though, upon having that thought, Kanji developed a very curious question, "'Ey… When are Shadows born?"

"Me?" Kage blinked, identifying himself with a sleeve to the chest. Unfortunately, that was another tough question that broke Kage into a headache-riddled state with no good answer as a result, "I don't… remember that either."

And how could Kanji expect a really good answer…? No one remembered their birth. Babies were just incapable of making those kinds of long-term memories. But were there such things as baby Shadows? Kanji assumed that perhaps it was some sort of life-changing event that caused a Shadow form, and if that happened at such an age where one could hold memories, then why wouldn't the Shadow remember it too? Either way… Kage had no answer, and Kanji wasn't going to push it unless he wanted to give the poor thing a Teddie-complex. Indeed, Teddie had been plagued by the paradoxical thought that his existence came out of nowhere too; that he had no beginning.

"I don't like thinking about these things. Something feels wrong," Kage answered with a frown. He couldn't tell if it was his insecurity about the questions that made him feel bad, or if he was actually managing to fish up a memory. But nothing vivid was coming through…

"Sorry… I shouldn't be asking," Kanji quickly apologized, setting down the shovel and sitting before the grave as well. He wanted to change up the conversation for Kage's sake but… he couldn't think of what to ask now. Obviously, no more personal questions…

Surprisingly, the one to break the silence this time was Kage with a question of his own, "Why can't I be with you more, Kanji-kun?"

Kanji could already feel Naoto's hard stare on him the moment Kage asked that. He glanced over his shoulder, but she wasn't immediately in sight. She was most likely talking over things with everyone else back at the cemetery entrance. "Well… it's just… You kind'a made a bad first impression…" he spoke, "That one night, I mean—"

"You didn't like it?" Kage interrupted, tilting his head.

Kanji already had a hand plastered against his reddened face. This wasn't where he expected this conversation to go, nor was this the best place to talk about it, "It's not about that… It's about right and wrong and… that wasn't right. That's just how it is."

"Explain."

"Argh, Kage… Look, I'll be blunt. I thought you were going to kill me… several times. That's not how that kind of thing is… supposed to happen. The only way I… guess I… sort of tolerated it was… maybe… sort of… 'cause you… y'know…" he could barely keep eye contact with the creature. Nor could his nose hold up. One more perverse thought and it would overflow for sure.

"Y'know….?" Kage leaned forwards.

Kanji gave off a deep huff, "'Cause ya look like Naoto, damnit..."

Kage immediately rolled onto his back and giggled delightfully. There was no insult to him, was there? "You DO like her!" he remarked loud enough to warrant Kanji's hand over the Shadow's mouth. No shit, Sherlock.

"Shhh…!" Kanji insisted as if it was some sort of deep secret. Like the whole world didn't already know. Well, the whole world minus Naoto, apparently.

Kage lifted his sleeves in order to pry Kanji's hand off his mouth. He stared up at him with a smile that was slowly dropping, "… I wasn't going to hurt you, Kanji."

"Yeah, I get that now… You're a good Shadow," Kanji answered, lowering his hand. "But… no more of that… 'K? Pretend it didn't happen…"

Kage didn't give an immediate answer, just a grin. With it, he stared at Kanji until he was sure that the other boy was thoroughly creeped out, and then nodded. "Well, of course. I know which one of us you prefer anyways," he chuckled, eyes closed. Before Kanji could make a meaningful comeback, Kage brought himself back to his feet and turned on his heels, walking back towards the cemetery entrance with a smile on his face.

Kanji watched him go with a defeated expression. He would've yelled a 'Don't tell her!' at the Shadow, but that alone would have risked being heard. Though, the reason why Kage had advanced on him that night… Kanji thought about it, and even if it was because of some sort of suppressed feeling… there was no way that Naoto would ever act so boldly. She didn't actually feel that way… not to that extreme. Shadows were all about extremes and Kanji couldn't make any kind of assumption just because Kage did something so… upfront. With a quiet sigh, he turned back towards the grave and rested a hand on the nameplate, mentally apologized for the conversation that had just taken place, "Peace, Ma…"

"… Idiot…" Kage whispered under his breath, wiping a sleeve against his eyes.

* * *

Gathered back at the parking lot of Junes, the group waited for a rendezvous with Daichi and his car which had already been re-packed that morning before they left for the cemetery. There had been little mention of where Daichi had been all this time until Rise outright asked. Shrugging, Kanji assumed that his cousin had done what any typical visitor would do and explored the town that he had not seen in ages. It was a sad sight to see, but the Tatsumi Textiles shop had already been vacated and leased to a family-run bakery that was already in the process of moving. At least the building would retain its status as a partial-home, so another family would be able to build a warm collection of memories where Kanji had grown up. As long as no one suspected that the house was haunted… That was the last thing he'd want to hear.

Chie stared down the road and saw no indication of Daichi arriving soon, but everyone knew that their time together was coming to an end. Unfortunately, it was at just that moment that Chie realized something that she hoped would be helpful, "Wait a moment, Naoto… What was it that brought Kage to you in the first place?"

Naoto turned to look at her, "You mean the Shadow Extraction?"

"No, I mean… way before that. Like how I have Suzuka now, though she was once my Shadow," Chie reminded.

"You accepted yourself…" Naoto answered, folding her arms, "You had a revelation of sorts and your Shadow formed into your Persona."

Chie snapped her fingers and then braced her hands against her hips as if that alone was the answer.

Naoto stared for a moment and then slowly shook her head, "You're saying that I haven't accepted something… but…" as she spoke, she stared down and around at herself and noted all the changes that no longer bothered her. She had grown her hair out, ceased the breast binding and dressed in formal attire that was fitted to a dignified woman. It didn't take her long to realize that the only sort of discrimination she still faced was over her age. The sexism wasn't nearly as bad as she had assumed it would be… once you ruled out Tetsuma. He would never change. But the fact of the matter was that she no longer felt like she had to hide herself in order to be respected, and that alone was a huge weight off of her shoulders. You didn't have to be male to be masculine, nor did you have to be masculine to be respected. Naoto was just… Naoto. With all that behind her, was a lack-of-acceptance really the problem? "I've never felt more at ease with who I really am," she spoke, "I don't feel like anything is missing."

Chie rested a finger against her chin, "Well… It's a thought anyways. You can't rule it out unless you're entirely sure, right?"

"Naturally," Naoto nodded. Of course, these thoughts had already occurred to her before… But the more she debated them, the more she wondered if there was some truth to it all. It made her second guess a lot of things, and it just felt easier to assume it was all the Shadow Extraction's fault. "At the same time, though… it would be good if everyone kept an eye on Mrs. Tatsumi's grave just in case. Though I doubt it was anything more than a burrowing creature… that too is something we're not entirely sure about."

There was a unanimous nod within the group. Even if it was just out of respect, there would never be any shortage of visits to Mrs. Tatsumi's resting spot now. Thankfully, the conversation was reaching its resolution just as Daichi's car was seen driving into view. Naoto and Kanji both double checked their phones to make sure that all their contacts were up to date, and a round of handshakes, hugs and strong pats on the back were shared between everyone. The weekend had gone by too fast… It was obvious on everyone's face that a lengthier visit would have been more enjoyable, and perhaps there would be one in the future, but for now there was a more pressing matter at hand.

Unsurprisingly, Kage decided to ride with Naoto for the trip back to Yagokoro. It would be a long and sometimes uncomfortable trip, but to him, anything was better than a car. When everyone was set, they gave one final farewell and drove off towards the highway. Those remaining in Inaba waved until there was nothing left of the two vehicles on the horizon, and slowly but surely, they lowered their hands.

Yukiko was the first to lower her gaze as well, a small frown forming, "… We're not going to see him again, are we?" she spoke up.

Yosuke looked over at her, "That Shadow, huh?" he responded, "I didn't want it to sound that way but… yeah. If things get sorted out… then I guess that really was the last time we'll see him."

April 15th, 2013, Monday

_Revelations… revelations…_

The thought wouldn't leave Naoto's mind. Even as she tried to focus in class, she was starting to feel distracted and troubled. It was true. The longer she put off returning Kage to her mind, the harder it would be to do so. The night he appeared, she would have been fine even if Kage was forced to return to her with tears flowing down his cheeks. She would have had no sympathy for such a creature. He didn't belong in this world, so it didn't matter then. But now, it was not even a week later… and she was already regretting so much. He had caused her so much grief, but at the same time, he was beginning to feel like family. She could see it already… Kage would be gone someday, and every now and then she'd think 'He was a pretty good kid….', and then what? It didn't make sense. He was supposed to be a part of her, yet she could tell that the moment they united again, she would only feel emptier. Loss from gain…

"Thank goddddd," spoke a voice behind Naoto, with an exasperated sigh that was so loud that it had probably been held back all class until lunch time when it could finally explode. It was Touko, who else?

Naoto glanced over her shoulder with eyes that were leering not because she was agitated, but because she could feel a dab of moisture forming within them. She had to stop thinking about these things, it wasn't healthy. She blinked at her friend, "That sounds good…?"

"Very good," Touko spoke, waving her phone from side to side in her hand. "Guess what website isn't a total piece of crap? MyPlace sure isn't," she spoke out the answer without giving any time for Naoto to guess. It must have been hypothetical. "They've been recovering user accounts. I have at least a dozen people I can't contact any other way, so this is pretty high on the awesome scale."

Naoto tilted her head, "Huh? Didn't you say something about there being no backups?"

"The news said that," Touko admitted, "I honestly don't care, though. I got back what I wanted and so did everyone else who lost their account. MyPlace rocks, the news sucks, case closed huh?"

Naoto sat back forwards and collected her notes together, "The news has been covering up a lot lately."

Touko leaned forwards, "Hey… You're not still caught up about that Shadow-thing are you?"

"I am NOT caught up about him!" Naoto exclaimed, and then quickly bit her tongue, "I mean- it! The Shadow Extractions? It's none of my business anymore… I just don't see how a group of pencil-pusher detectives will be able to solve something so… abnormal."

Touko frowned, "At least Tetsuma let you off the hook… And it's not like we're anything particularly special either. We're still in High School for crying out loud."

"But that's the thing, all the victims we've seen so far have been students," Naoto mentioned, pausing the moment she spoke those words. A stare passed between her and Touko as they considered it. "Right? There was no one in Goro's slapped-together gang that was all that old."

"Is that important? It's probably just the people he knew…" Touko reminded.

Naoto slowly shook her head. It was such a varied group of people… like a random survey of teenagers, in all shapes and sizes. Still, that wasn't all. "Even if so… that kid who came to our school could have gone to a less protected area… but he came here. He wanted students."

Touko rose a hand, "Stop, stop, stop, stop. You're not allowed to investigate this case, Naoto. If Tetsuma catches you, he'll eat you alive," she spoke quickly, trying to deter Naoto from her train of thought, "I know you're doing this 'cause your friend got hurt… but he's fine, isn't he? And with Goro gone, we might not even hear of this ever again so… come on. For your sake, just let it go."

Naoto winced, "I'll try…" Yeah right… this was far from over. There was so much that she wished she could simply tell Touko, but it was complicated. Even if she was considered Naoto's best friend, the girl was still under the impression that the events after school last week were just a tricky illusion or some sort of mass hallucination. Whatever her explanation was, she assumed that what had happened… didn't actually happen, and it was better that way. Personas and Shadows weren't real, and the vast majority of the world was safe within their own ignorance thinking that way. There were a number of things that someone could go their whole life without knowing, and this was one of them.

* * *

With another school day over, Naoto returned home and contemplated whether or not she'd have any time to visit the police station in the evenings with Kage around. Since she was removed from the Shadow Extraction case and was otherwise unemployed, there wasn't a great deal of importance for her to be there. At the very least, she could try to dig her way into another case, but she knew very well that she didn't have time for that either… It wasn't her choice anyways. She could express interest in a case, but unless they required her assistance, she was just another private investigator trying to get a job and there was always heavy competition on those grounds.

Entering the estate, Naoto greeted her grandfather at the entrance and made her way up to her room. Dropping her things down, she noticed that something… well, someone… was missing. The only things that were out of place were a few Sherlock Holmes books laying down on the bed with bookmarks stuck in each. Kage certainly had an odd chronology when it came to reading. Checking where he was in each book, Naoto noticed that he was further along in some of the later books, and yet he had barely touched some of the earlier ones. Naoto softly chuckled… How disorganized.

"Grandpa, where's Kage?" she asked in a raised voice, heading back down the stairs.

Naoto's grandfather looked up from his comfortable position on the living room sofa, a newspaper held between his hands. "Ah… I believe he went out the back a little while ago? He was helping me in the kitchen earlier, but I figure he got bored of that," he explained, causing Naoto to notice the faint scent of cinnamon coming from the other room.

Curious, she checked the kitchen counter and noticed a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls cooling by the window. They smelled fantastic.

"He helped you make these?" Naoto asked, looking over her shoulder towards the living room. She could see her grandfather nodding from behind the newspaper.

"They should be done now. Go ahead and have one if you'd like," he spoke, to which Naoto couldn't help but accept.

"Thank you," she answered, taking one in hand and savoring the first bite out of it. The rich sweetness of the glazing completely melted her taste buds, and she wondered how much of Kage's handiwork actually went into this. She didn't doubt that he was a good baker… It was just surprising for a creature that couldn't even taste. Speaking of which, he was apparently out in the backyard, so Naoto rested the roll on a napkin and carried it outside with her.

Typical for a packed residential area, the estate's backyard was enclosed on all sides by a tall picket fence. The patio from the doorway was paved with concrete tiles which were, of course, a worthy opponent against any fallen alarm machines and other such debris. The backyard was spacious enough to contain a number of large grown trees, and the largest of all of them accommodated a very cozy looking tree house within its thick branches. Underneath it was the individual that Naoto had been looking for. Leaning with a hand against the tree, Kage stared up at the ladder-like planks that scaled up and inside the tree house. Finishing the last bite of her cinnamon roll, Naoto stepped forwards and gave the boy a small wave.

"I appreciate the help you gave Grandpa today. The rolls are delicious," she remarked with a soft smile. It was only when she got close enough that Naoto noticed the dismal look on Kage's face. Barely glancing at her, the Shadow merely acknowledged her presence before returning to his fixed stare at the tree house. Naoto folded her arms and frowned, "Is something wrong?"

Kage's shoulders dropped, "I remember… what happened to mom and dad," he spoke in a quiet voice.

Naoto's shoulders tensed up, "What put that on your mind?"

"Kanji asked me how I felt about our parents being gone… and I didn't know what to say because I couldn't remember at the time," he answered, turning his gaze to Naoto. His flushed cheeks made it obvious that he had been weeping. "So, since we got back at home, I decided to look around for anything that might help me remember. I saw pictures of them and things that they had written. But nothing brought back the right feeling… until then I saw this," he spoke, looking up at the wooden construction in the tree.

Naoto's eyes followed and she stepped forwards, "This tree house..." One of her hands gripped a plank that had been nailed to the tree, "I built this together with father. Well, actually, I was only three years old so I didn't do as much of the work as I'd like to think I did. But we always said that 'we built this together'… And when my parents died, I often escaped to this place to-… just get away."

"You cried here," Kage corrected her, a shine of gold flickering in his eyes, "You didn't want grandfather to see it. You didn't want anyone to… You're the next in the Shirogane line after your parents, and you knew very well that you'd have to be strong. After you drenched your heart to the point that it stopped feeling, you started counting the days that you could go without crying. First it was a couple of days, and then a week… Soon enough you were able to proudly say that you had gone years without crying. About anything. No one would ever see you cry…" he spoke, watching Naoto's expression fall as he did. There were a number of times where she tried to interrupt his talking, but she didn't know what to say. He boldly continued, "And then… all of your friends saw it. They saw me crying the tears you resisted for ages. Crying that you 'didn't want to be alone'."

"Do we really have to have this conversation?" Naoto asked, feeling choked by his words.

Kage stepped forwards and draped his sleeves across her shoulders, standing uncomfortably close to her face, "Why can't we? How much sympathy can you really feel for Kanji-kun if you choose to ignore your own feelings on the matter? It's not weak… it's not embarrassing… it's the truth. I saw him trying to cover up his own tears at the grave when I was around, and they would have expressed all I needed to know. But instead, he asked how I felt… and I had no answer for him then."

Naoto narrowed her eyes and sighed, "Society teaches us that crying is shameful. For most, it's something uncontrolled and is brought about by private matters. We don't want others to know that there is a problem because it's none of their business… Even if a simple 'I hope you feel better' from a complete stranger can, in fact, be very uplifting, one can also feel guilt from fishing for sympathy. People flow through life easier when everyone else around them is, in their perspective, a mindless drone…" she spoke, knowing there was something distasteful in that truth.

"Easier… but not happier," Kage whispered.

"No, definitely not happier… Which is why we have family and select friends of whom we can truly express our feelings to," Naoto added on with a soft smile.

Kage shook his head, "But do you? I know there's so much you want to tell Kanji-kun. How much you understand his pain and how much you wish you could help him through it… But you're scared," he emphasized that last word with a hiss, staring up at the tree house. "Scared that one day, all of this will be brought up. That you'd have to indulge him in the truth of your past and the things that shamed you as a child…"

Naoto lowered her hand from the plank ladder and stared at point with Kage, her pupils dilating.

He continued, "You know what I'm talking about, don't you? In a child's eyes, the death of one's parents is something so confusing and wrong… The first thing any child tries to do is make sense of why it happened. Especially to you, being who you are… You're so perceptive, there has to be a reason for everything with you. And so, something must have been wrong. How about the possibility that the child your parents received… wasn't the child they were hoping for?" he spoke the sentence as if he was spelling it out, every word visibly affecting Naoto's ability to keep calm.

Turning, she threw one of his sleeves off of her shoulder and clenched her fists, stepping towards the house, "Alright, we've had a good talk, Kage. Let's go back inside."

The Shadow stayed put and raised his voice, "They had a name set out and everything! 'Naoto' Shirogane… such a cool, manly name. But a name doesn't change the truth. You would never be the boy they wanted, so they made a feverish attempt to try again. They asked you many times… 'how would you feel if you had a younger brother'? Yes… it would have to be a brother, wouldn't it? You were unsure of what to think because it was a difficult concept for such a young mind. But when your parents died, it became clear. After years of failure, they knew that the Shirogane line was now infected… with you… and they didn't want to see its downfall. They made no attempt to change their fate!" As he continued his brutal barrage of sentences, he could see Naoto's hands rising up and quivering against the sides of her head. It was nonsense. Painful, painful nonsense…!

Kage walked towards her and brought his arms around her shoulders again, his chin nuzzled into the crook of her neck, "At the very least, you got to say good bye to your mother in the hospital… Kanji did not. How your mother managed to survive the car crash was a miracle… and maybe if you had never visited her, she would have continued to live. But you did… And indeed," he lifted his chin and breathed heavily, "The sight of her failure of a child was what stopped her heart…"

Even with Kage holding onto her, Naoto lost her composure and dropped down onto the grass, burying her face against her knees and hands, "N-no more, please…!"

Having fallen down with her, Kage continued to hug from behind, "This is what you cried over… It took you a degrading amount of time to realize that all of this was untrue. That as a child, you had to come up with some sort of reason for it to all make sense. However, the product of your… creative mind… was vile and dishonorable. You would never make assumptions ever again, and you stopped crying," his words softened as he assured her that it had all been the work of an overactive mind.

Naoto glanced up and wiped her drenched hands against her cheeks. "It's true…" her voice stuttered, "For the longest time, that was my excuse. Never before had I disturbed myself with my own thoughts so badly, and I was afraid and alone. I didn't want grandfather to know of the things I thought because it would only upset him too, so I never brought it up, and thus it was never corrected… I had to realize it on my own, after much deliberating with myself, that I was exactly what my parents wanted. No child is 'wrong', there's no such thing… The gift of being a parent is that you will always… always be happy with what you get," as she spoke, Naoto sat up straight and looked over her shoulder at Kage. She didn't know what to think about showing him her crying face. On one side, she was really only crying with herself, but on the other side, it was he who had made her cry.

Kage leaned forwards and pressed his cheek to hers, "I enjoyed those talks. All that contemplation back then when you were young…"

"Back then…?" Naoto questioned, lifting a brow. Deliberating with… herself… Ah…

Naoto closed her eyes and nodded, wiping away a few more tears, "That was you… Of course. No wonder you remember so much. Right now, with you being disconnected from my mind, your memories must be so scattered. You're running on only what you know, and yes… there was someone I would always talk to here when I was little. It must have been you. You were my imaginary friend back then…"

Kage smiled gently, "People talk to themselves all the time thinking that no one is listening… but it's not true."

"You've been around for such a long time, then. Is that normal?" Naoto asked, perplexed by the thought that even little children could have Shadows.

Kage shrugged his shoulders, "It varies from person to person. For most, childhood is a time of innocence and unknowing. You were introduced to reality at a very young age. But it made you who you are… and evidently, made me who I am, too."

Naoto looked up, "And you're happy with who you are?" It was a cruel job, having to remind her of all the things she resisted and feared.

He nodded in response, "… I wouldn't change it for the world. As Shadows, we inherently know our place. We thrive on the principles of denial and acceptance from someone else, not from ourselves. It wouldn't make sense for you to accept a creature that has doubts about itself. So, I never do," he said, tilting his head down.

Naoto leaned back into his hug, admittedly feeling comforted by those big, flappy sleeves sometimes, "But what more do I have to accept…?"

Kage paused in thought for a moment and then shook his head, "… Give it time."


	10. Chapter 10

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

Something had been missed during the interview with Goro four days ago. Apparently there was something said that should have turned the gears in Naoto's brain more, but it didn't happen the first time around. That could be easily blamed on the fact that Goro seemed entirely out of his mind during their conversation and that made it hard to focus. Naoto had been more concerned over whether or not she should be prepared to practice her self-defense if things got out of hand. Thankfully she didn't, no matter how vulgar Goro had been.

Sitting at her computer desk, Naoto plugged in the audio recorder she brought to the interview and passed over the conversation many times, listening to the tone of Goro's voice and the flow of his sentences. The more she listened to it, the more it felt like his lopsided, crazy talk had been rather intentional… It felt orchestrated somehow.

"You said something before; that he wasn't always such a nutcase," Naoto spoke out to Kage who was huddled up on her bed and reading more Holmes novels.

He looked up, "I did?"

Naoto nodded, "Yes, a while ago, when I explained to you what happened to the remains of his body."

Putting the book down for a moment, Kage turned over onto his belly and nodded, "Oh, the gas thing. Yeah."

"I think you might have been right… Although, from what we can tell of his history, he had an issue with substance abuse and realistically, that's what anyone would think caused him so much brain damage. But there are plenty of drug addicts in the world that manage to stay coherent and responsible despite their problem. Goro wouldn't have been on drugs in the hospital, either… So I'm really wondering how much of his insanity can be credited to his addiction, or if it was something else…" Naoto remarked.

Kage shrugged, "That gas really did a number on his body, so it was probably that…"

Naoto nodded, "But then we have to question where that gas came from. There could be a link between the two, that the drug is what caused the gas. However extreme that sounds." she replied, tenting her fingers together in front of her, "I've been mulling it over for the past while and I got worried over one other possibility. One other source of the gas… We know very little about him, but one unique trait of his was that he was able to perform a Shadow Extraction on Kanji." As she spoke, she rewound the audio to one particular moment and hit play.

"_Drugs… maybe… I'unno who started it, 'cause ya can't do it less someone does it to ya first,_" spoke Goro's voice from the speakers. Before Naoto hit pause, a maniacal laugh could be heard following the man's sentence.

Naoto looked up, "And that's where he lost it… He never specified, but he must have been talking about the Shadow Extractions, meaning that if he was able to do it to someone else, then he must have been Shadow Extracted too at one point. This bothers me."

Kage rolled his shoulders, "Weeelll… duh. If he was doing it to others, then he was probably into it himself." Bravo, Captain Obvious.

"That's not the problem…" Naoto tapped the tips of her fingers together, "This whole Shadow Extraction thing raises a lot of questions. Namely, why was I the only one who had my Shadow physically pulled from me whereas everyone else's was just a standard summoning? Secondly… could it be at all possible that Goro's engagement with Shadow Extracting… caused his body to rot? And produce the gas?"

Kage realized what she was trying to say. He puffed out his cheeks and leaned forwards, "… Are you feeling bloated?"

"No…" she answered.

"Losing your mind? Feeling like your sanity isn't up to par lately?"

"No… Kage, I don't feel any different."

The Shadow slumped back onto the bed and waved a hand, "You're not rotting, host-kun."

"What if it takes time to set in? This isn't something that you can just dismiss because I'm still feeling alright… What happened to Goro's body was completely paranormal, and the only paranormal thing we've been chasing at the moment is the Shadow Extraction case. If they're unrelated, then I'm going to be at a complete loss for words," Naoto spoke, looking to Kage with a visibly nervous glare, "I will get myself tested the moment I have the time. We don't know what kind of damage all of this has been doing to us under the skin, and I'll be damned if I'm going to die a rancid balloon."

"Alright, alright… sorry," Kage sat back up and shook his head, "What is it, then? What was that gas?"

Naoto looked forwards a pressed a hand to her chin, "Well… let's say that they are related. That gas could be a contagion who's only known way of spreading is through what we know as Shadow Extracting. There would have to be a reason as to why it spreads… and I suppose that the obvious reason would be survival. If it acts like a living virus, then the only way it can procreate is within another person's body… hence why it takes over the whole system. It was absorbing Goro… sustaining itself and perhaps him as well," she reclined back into her chair, folded her arms and turned to face Kage. "And that's why you need to be Shadow Extracted first in order to do it to someone else." The grin upon her face was ever so smug.

"That's crazy…" Kage remarked with a stunned gaze, staring her up and down, "But… but, then it's in you!"

"I know… And it's awful that I'd feel the need to come up with some sort of reasoning to back it up. But if it's true, then perhaps there is a way to avert it in its early stages. So, I will get tested…" she said, holding a hand over her stomach. "What Goro said that would lead us to Kon… I wonder if that was it. That you cannot do it to others unless you've had it done yourself… If so, he might have accidentally told us that there was an originator behind all of this, and that this person may have been the source of the gas."

Kage nodded slowly, "That fixes the paradox of cause and effect… How could someone have started the Shadow Extractions if it was never done to them?"

"Indeed…" Naoto smiled, "Someone would have had to have been infused with this gas some other way. It was likely created by someone… perhaps even as an accident, and it took over their mental system and reprogrammed them with the intention of spreading it—dear god, Kage, this is actually making sense, isn't it?"

Kage sarcastically slapped a palm against his forehead, "Eureka?"

"Maybe… the only way to know for sure is if we can find traces of it within Kanji and I. If so… it will be conclusive. There's no other reason as to why we'd harbor such a substance… but, naturally, it will be difficult to deal with," she said, looking off to the side, "We don't even know what it is… but we do know what it does. Unfortunately, we don't know what sort of time frame we have either."

Kage could tell that she was uneasy about all of this. It was still just a theory, sure… There was no proof that Goro's gaseous corpse had anything to do with the Shadow Extractions at all. But if there was, then it was definitely a reason for alarm. The little Shadow sat up on the bed and hugged his knees together, "So… anyone that was Shadow Extracted even just once is at risk…?"

"Possibly…" Naoto answered, tallying in her mind how many people she knew that had been affected. The gang… a few students at school… Kon… yes, Kon… She quickly looked back up, "… Maybe… that's why there's been no news on Kon. If he was treated at a hospital for a wound that deep, it would have required surgery. If they discovered something that odd inside of him then telling the public could have caused a panic. Severe illnesses always cause a panic," she spoke with widened eyes. It was amazing how one simple train of thought was answering so many questions. She tilted her head down and sighed upon realizing, "Furthermore, he might already be dead because of it. Indeed, if Goro was that bad and he wasn't the first… then whoever created this gas and got infected by it would be far gone by now."

Kage quickly frowned, "Are you saying that this case is unsolvable? I know you're better than that."

Naoto shook her head, "What I am saying is that we might have an epidemic on our hands and that should be our first priority. If Kanji and I are the first people to become aware of it before it gets fatal, then it's necessary for us to assist towards making a cure. For this… I believe we just need to go to the right people."

Kage tilted his head, "And who are 'the right people?'"

"Well, there's Kirijo-san for one," Naoto answered.

It had already been on Naoto's mind that her next plan of action would be to contact the Kirijo Group for their assistance since this Shadow Extraction business was clearly Persona related somehow. As well, they were a very technologically advanced group, so if anyone was going to be able to help them with paranormal illnesses and offer a sufficient mental check-up, it was them. Naoto put a lot of trust in their leader, Mitsuru Kirijo, as well, considering how professionally she had handled the last issue they had inside the Mayonaka realm with Labrys. What with all the reunions happening lately, it would be a treat to be able to see everyone on that end as well.

Naoto turned towards her computer and nodded once, "I'll send her a quick email now, then. I don't want to alarm her, though… What should I do first, tell her that I might have some sort of supernatural disease, or that my Shadow is bunking with me here in the real world?"

Kage clapped his hands together, "Ohhh, both, at the same time. Make sure it sounds extra urgent, like you're going to die the next day, or if you don't, then I'm going to devour your soul on a golden dish."

Sigh… Just, sigh… "I'll tell her how macabre you've turned out to be. I'm sure she'd believe that," Naoto remarked, her fingers tapping across the keyboard keys. No, she wouldn't ruin Mitsuru's day by telling her something so shocking. She managed to bunch together the issues by, yes, mentioning that her Shadow had somehow manifested itself into the real world, but also that she wished to be physically tested due to her exposure to everything. Nice and vague to begin with. She would get into the details once Mitsuru replied… and hopefully she would soon.

April 16th, 2013, Tuesday

There was something different about waking up that morning that Naoto couldn't immediately put a finger on. In a half-asleep state, all she could recognize was that the bed seemed a little colder and that the sheets were a little more loose than usual. It was oddly uncomfortable. Feeling like she was going to beat her alarm clock in this state, Naoto turned over with a soft murmur and expected to see Kage huddled up behind her. Alas, he was nowhere to be seen, which explained why the bed felt so lonely. She had gotten surprisingly used to his clingy night time spooning and the added warmth from it, so much that it had become a comforting routine.

Staring around the room, Naoto noticed that her door had been left open and a light coming from the direction of the bathroom also seemed to be seeping through. In fact, the door looked like it had been left open as well. "Hm…" Naoto sat up and combed down her hair with her fingers, sliding off of the bed and getting a housecoat on. She followed the direction of the bathroom light and the sound of small splashes coming from it, knocking lightly on the doorway when she reached it.

From the bathroom echoed a familiar, youthful voice, "Hiii?"

"Kage?" Naoto blinked, peering into the bathroom. What she saw was completely unexpected but… there it was. From what she could tell, Kage had stripped down, filled the bath with water, willingly put himself IN the bath… and was just… generally taking a bath. This was groundbreaking. Naoto's mouth hung somewhat, "You're cleaning yourself?"

"Aren't I supposed to?" he turned to her and tilted his head.

"Well… yes!" Naoto answered, "But I thought you didn't like the water."

Kage folded his arms, "Come on, I'm more logical than that… Two times in the water and I can already tell that it isn't going to harm me. So, I guess I should probably treat myself better in this world if I'm going to have to deal with it," he sighed and looked up, "How much longer am I going to stay here, anyways?"

Naoto leaned against the bathroom wall, "I don't know… I think all we can do is hope that Mitsuru has some useful information for us. In the off chance that the originator of the Shadow Extractions is already deceased, then the Kirijo Group might be the only ones we can turn to."

Kage nodded and gave off a soft "Hm," at her answer, idly creating squirts of water with his hands.

Naoto looked around the room, "You don't need any help, then?"

"Maybe…" he answered, looking to an empty bottle of shampoo sitting on the edge of the tub. The entire lid had been removed instead of the small cap on top. "I might need more of that. There wasn't much left," he mentioned.

Naoto was at first amused that Kage failed to open the bottle correctly, but then she noticed something odd about the scene. His hair didn't seem that washed, nor did it look very wet at all. Naoto tilted her head, "You wouldn't need a whole lot anyways. Your hair is short."

"My hair?" Kage questioned, raising a hand to the dark blue strands, "What does that have to do with it?"

"Kage…" Naoto frowned, "What did you do with the shampoo?"

"I drank it," he answered, "Don't we have any more?"

Just as she feared. Naoto quickly grabbed the bottle and checked the ingredients for anything that sounded toxic and cringed, "There's detergent sulphates and DEA in this," and a host of other chemicals that were difficult to pronounce the first time, "How could you down something like this…!?"

Kage emitted a little whine, "It smelled good!"

Naoto suddenly understood. He had no sense of taste, but a very keen sense of smell. If he was going to bother trying to eat anything, then he would base whether or not it was good with his nose, not his tongue, and it was a well-known fact that shampoo smelled fantastic and tasted awful. "Of all things, Kage… Do you feel alright?"

He frowned, "My tummy hurts, but I thought that was because I didn't have enough to drink." As he spoke, he hiccuped lightly. Surprisingly, no, there were no bubbles foaming out of his mouth.

"You're never drinking this ever again," she remarked, "Don't you remember? This is supposed to be used to wash your hair. Tell me next time before you get curious about anything…"

"I'm sorry…" he answered, hugging his arms around his stomach.

Naoto shook her head. "It's okay…" she said, closing the bathroom door and remaining with him. It would be irresponsible of her to leave him alone after he had just ingested some ounces of raw shampoo. Reaching under the counter, she opened a fresh bottle and helped him with his hair again, hoping that he'd remember for next time and finally be able to do it himself.

As he sat back up a few times, Kage lurched forwards and gave off a soft groan, looking discomforted by the shampoo. Thank goodness he couldn't taste it…

"Do you even have a stomach in there?" Naoto questioned.

"I do…" he answered, looking progressively more ill and dazed, "But I don't think it likes this… very much… " As he turned to look at Naoto, he held a balled up hand against his mouth and his complexion was getting paler by the second.

Naoto quickly got to her feet and grabbed the nearest towel, urging him into it without a moment to waste. Kneeling him down by the toilet, she flipped open the seat and carefully dried him off while he leaned in front of the bowl. "Better out than in," she spoke, rubbing the towel against his back in a gentle massage, "Stay here for a moment and I'll get you a glass of water."

As she left, Kage sighed deeply and shook his head, "Why would I need a glass of wa-… … ugh… gk-…" The following sounds didn't need to be described. They were horrifying, and Naoto would be glad that she had left the room. When she returned, Kage could be seen with his arms dropped to the floor from both sides of the toilet, his face fallen against the seat of it. He sniffled lightly as a small stream of black liquid trickled from his panting lips.

Naoto wasn't eager to look inside the toilet… but she did. Oddly enough, all she could see was that the water had gone jet black, oily… and perhaps a little sudsy. Wincing, she handed Kage the glass of water and looked away, "Alright, rinse your mouth out… Are you feeling any better?"

"Yeah…" he nodded lightly, taking in a bit of water at a time.

Naoto was about to ask him what that substance even was… It certainly didn't look like any regular vomit, but why would it? He didn't eat the way she did. Before she asked, though, she suddenly realized that this wasn't the first time that she had seen it. Reaching for the sink, she grabbed a cloth and offered it to Kage, "This stuff… Back when you were summoned to this world as Yamato Takeru, I remember seeing it…" she said, "You drooled it onto my school uniform, and it was an absolute pain to wash out the stain."

Kage took the cloth and wiped his mouth, clearing his throat, "I don't remember that all too well…"

"You were stressed and agitated for some reason… I doubt you'd remember it if you were acting so blindly," she spoke. Raising her fingers to the handle, she was just one push away from flushing it all down the toilet… but stopped herself. "Hmn, hold on."

Getting up, Naoto walked back to her room and opened a drawer that contained a number of tools and containers. She collected a small beaker with a fitted lid, as well as a pair of thick plastic gloves, quickly putting them on first. "Don't be offended if I do this…" she remarked as she walked back into the bathroom and knelt before the toilet seat. Trying not to think about where it had come from, Naoto dipped the beaker into the black substance and collected what she could, attaching the lid back on.

Kage stared at her with a perplexed and slightly grossed out face as she cleaned the container at the sink, and then finally flushed what was left down the toilet. Shaking his head, he stood back up and made sure he was completely dry, "Weirdo…"

Naoto shrugged at him, "You never know, we might be able to get some information out of it. And if we did need it, I wouldn't want to have you vomit again just for that…"

Kage rolled his eyes and lifted an arm, "If you wanted some of it, you could have just asked." As he said that, his arm made a surprising transformation from a solid, human-like arm to a thick length of black ooze that just barely held itself together. It seeped up as far as his shoulder, or otherwise, however far he wanted the transformation to go.

Naoto stepped back and blinked with wide eyes, "W-wha…! It's… your whole… everything!?"

"Duh?" he frowned, holding the droopy goo arm to his chest. "… You don't really know anything about us, do you?"

"Well- I…." still too stunned to talk properly, Naoto could only stare and witness as Kage completed the transformation before her eyes until he was nothing but a pile of black slime upon the bathroom floor with the towel covering over half of him. The two yellow orb-like eyes popped up around the center of the mound and he visibly blinked back at her, as well as gave a grinning goo-smile that was difficult to even see. He inched back so that the edge of his pooling wouldn't touch Naoto's feet, though nothing he came in contact with got dirty, surprisingly.

Naoto took a moment to stare at the container in her hand, and then back at Kage with complete bewilderment. This was exactly what Grandpa had mentioned before when he tried to describe what he knew Shadows as. Naoto also remembered that the Shadows in the TV realm often took on this shape when they were passive, but she didn't expect Kage to have such a form as well. It made her question what state was supposed to be the dominant one… whether he was actually her Shadow, or just a Shadow blob that took on her form. Did it even matter? If she asked him, Kage would probably just explain that they were one in the same, no matter what the appearance was.

"I guess I still have a lot to learn…" she spoke.

Kage flailed his stubby little goo arms for a moment and emitted a tiny, 'blwarglgrlbrl' noise… quite incomprehensible.

Naoto shook her head, "Right, I don't speak gibberish."

Putting a little finger to his mouth, Kage realized that she couldn't understand and decided that his show was over anyways. Returning to his original human-like form took nothing more than a couple of seconds, and he stood back up with the towel wrapped over his shoulders, "I'm getting cold."

"Well then, let's get you something to wear," she answered, opening the door and leading him back out. As she left him to his own devices, Kage jumped into his pile of Kanji's old clothes and happily picked out something to wear for the day. Naoto likewise got herself fitted back into her school uniform and made preparations to leave for school. Before going, she made one quick check on her computer to see if Mitsuru had replied, and unfortunately there was nothing yet. It was still early in the morning, so she couldn't be blamed…

"Alright, see you after school," Naoto waved, grabbing her bag and making one last check to see if the bathroom was spotless and free of Kage's shenanigans.

The little Shadow rolled from side to side in Kanji's clothes even after he had already changed, "Byee~"

* * *

Sousei's motor putted to a stop as Naoto dismounted from him at her usual place in the student parking lot. Making sure that she had all her belongings, Naoto pat Sousei's front mudguard with gratitude and made her way towards Shinri's entrance doors. The motorcycle emitted nothing more than a tiny honk in response and watched her leave through his visual sensors, waiting a good few minutes until he was sure that she wasn't going to run back because she forgot something. It wasn't like her to do that anyways.

Once the coast was clear, Sousei's engine revved itself back into full power, his lights activating as well. Starting from his handlebars and then outwards towards the seat and footrest grew the recognizable form of a human being. Its identity remained anonymous under a heavy coat and helmet, but it wasn't a real person to begin with. In order for Sousei to remain conventional in appearance during his own time, he had the luxury of a self-activated hologram that made his solo cruising look a little less awkward. Even in this day and age, you didn't often see a motorcycle driving itself around, and so the hologram was often put to good use.

Set and ready to go, Sousei pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the road, leading himself back to the one place that he always made a habit of visiting while Naoto was in class: the police station.

Being at the station when you were currently unemployed was more of a listening job. You existed in the space as someone that anyone could go to in order to play a game of information hot potato, with everyone bouncing back and forth what they knew. You had to be on your toes in case you were needed during an emergency response, but until then… it was pretty much coffee and donuts. Sousei was honored enough as both a recognized detective and a specialized weapon, something that no one else in the department could claim to be. Because of this, he was often limited to special emergencies and night time activity, particularly due to Naoto being with him at that time too. Even if he was technically available as a vehicle to his fellow officers, no one dared to ride what they knew was Shirogane's property. It was an unwritten law.

Still, he had his own desk and everything, which was usually his first destination. After re-humanizing behind the station, Sousei entered the building and made small passing waves to anyone that greeted his entrance. Naturally, he stood out every time he showed up. Making his way to his desk, Sousei heard and saw a few people looking up from their spots towards Tetsuma Tsuge's office down the hallway. For anyone else, the speaking going on within the room was rather muffled and indiscernible, but Sousei's sensors could make better clarity of it with little effort.

"_You actually think that this is going to get you noticed? You don't really know what you've got on your hands here,_" a voice spoke out that wasn't Tetsuma's.

He could be heard replying, "_I know what I'm doing and it's all under control. We have the technology to keep it stabilized and from what you should already know, it's doing the global e-business a great deal_" … there was a brief pause, and then a very faint voice, "_Uhn, how many times have I told you to just move the door stop… This isn't anyone's busine-_" his voice was suddenly cut off as the tiny stopper that kept the door open just a crack was removed and the door itself was shut tight.

Anyone who was even trying to listen before simply shrugged and turned away, unable to hear anything now. But with that, Sousei's curiosity was piqued… Sitting down at his desk, he pinpointed his audio sensors towards the door and narrowed his eyes, trying to focus on even the slightest source of sound. Indeed, they were still talking… and as long as no one tried to stir up a conversation with Sousei, he would be able to keep focus on the door.

"_Its corporate blackmail is what it is, Tsuge_…" spoke the unfamiliar voice, the sound barely coming through, "_You say you have the cure, but you can't reveal what it is? All I can say is, don't come crying to me when those MyPlace officials come knocking on your door claiming that you were the one that hacked into their system in the first place_."

"_But you know I didn't_…" he answered, an air of confidence in his voice.

"_No… but that's all it is from their perspective. You know too much_…"

Tetsuma could be heard reclining back into his rather squeaky chair, "_It's not blackmail if I haven't asked for anything in return, and I have not… I am simply doing a good service by restoring their site. They haven't the technology required to do so, and to reveal to them the cause of their problem would create a panic._"

"… _So, you want nothing, huh? I find it hard to believe that you wouldn't want at least a little merit for this_…"

"_Hmn, merit_…" Tetsuma answered, "… _Our company is standing on thin ice and you know that. If anything could be done that would boost our status as a legitimate annex group, then perhaps the financial benefits are something we can speak of at a later date… However, I doubt that Miss-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-_"

Sousei cut off his sensors temporarily as an audio glitch repeated and prolonged Tetsuma's last word until an unexpected wave of static covered up everything the two men were saying. Sousei couldn't understand where the sudden interference was coming from. Opening his eyes, he combed a hand through his hair and sighed, trying to listen in again once he reset his sensors. Indeed… everything was coming in loud and clear until he tried to pinpoint towards the door again. All he could hear at that point was static, as if he was unable to receive any audio information from that room at all.

"That's bizarre…" he whispered to himself. Sitting back up, he looked around the room for anyone who didn't seem immediately busy. Three seats to his right, the guy there seemed pretty reliable. "'Ey, who's Tetsuma been talking to?" Sousei asked, trying to wave him over.

"Oh… I didn't get his name. I think Tetsuma hired him about that case from last week. He just came in today, but those two have already been chattin' it up like they've known each other for years," the studious detective answered.

Sousei blinked, "For the Shadow Extraction case?"

"That's the one," the man pointed and nodded.

Sousei shook his head, "Didn't sound like that's what they were talking about to me…" he remarked, "Something about… MyPlace?"

"MyPlace?" he made a face back at Sousei, and then smiled, "Oh, well, yeah. Didn't you know? Their whole site was in turmoil for almost a week. Something about extremist hackers trying to make a buck off of 'em… At least, that's what people thought since the company was so clueless about what went wrong. Then suddenly, hey, the site is back up and running smooth like nothing had happened. So… what do you think everyone thought?"

Sousei frowned. This man had no clue of what Tetsuma had been talking about… In fact, he doubted that anyone else in this room knew. "Well… if that was true, then anyone would think that the hackers got their wish. Or they were captured and punished... Either way, the site is back, but I don't see what that has to do with last week's case."

The man shrugged, "It all happened around the same time… But you know, that's all they've been talking about. Maybe Tetsuma moved on once he realized that the Shadow Extracty-thing was a phony case and a waste of time after Mr. Yagi died-… uhm… no offense to… you know…"

Sousei looked away, "Miss Shirogane is… … it's off her mind," he spoke and sighed, "And perhaps it is for the better. Tsuge-san should stay away from a case that we obviously didn't have the means to solve."

"Ouch… You're lucky Tetsuma isn't in the room."

Sousei smirked briefly and shook his head, reaching around to turn on the computer at his desk, "Thanks for the talk…"


	11. Chapter 11

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

A small vibration in Naoto's coat pocket signaled an incoming message on her cell phone. Normally she would leave something like this until lunch time, but today wasn't like any other. She had people she needed to get in contact with, and fast. Making sure that the teacher wasn't looking, Naoto reached into her coat and held the phone before her lap where the teacher couldn't see. The message was titled 'URGENT' and thank goodness, it was from Mitsuru… It had been so long, yet it was no surprise that Mitsuru still had her contact information. Naoto had a hefty bit of Kirijo technology in her possession, after all.

_Naoto, thank you for coming to me about this issue. I'm going to need evidence of your claim ASAP so that I can properly assess the state of your Shadow. For any further details that would be easier to discuss face-to-face, I've attached a link to a live chat that we can use once you are available. _

_I would also like to inspect Sousei's recent activity at the same time. The core of his programming makes him hostile towards Shadows, yet from what I understand, it seems that two of them are acting in perfect compliance? Confirm when you are online._

_Mitsuru Kirijo _

A live chat? Well, that made it somewhat convenient. But there was only so much that could be done over the internet. Naoto wondered if they would have to discuss an actual visit sometime. Well, whatever worked… For now, she was still in class and had to focus on other things, no matter how distracted she was now. She didn't even notice Touko, who from sitting behind her was easily able to see Naoto's stealthy phone-check maneuver. Indeed, it was quite unlike Naoto to get so caught up in other things during class, especially since she wasn't occupied by any case at the moment…

Touko emitted a small 'hm', and returned her gaze back to her readings.

* * *

Getting home on Sousei, who had returned from the police station just in time to pick her up, Naoto made haste through the doorway and up the stairs. Following at her feet was an excited Kage who saw her come in and he quickly charged after her. Even though she was already partway up the stairs, Kage made a flying leap at her foot and gave her a swift whack on the ankle, landing hard on the edges of the stairs. His acting skills were terrible. He definitely looked hurt from that maneuver.

"T-…egh…. Tag…! You're it!" he announced, slowly sliding down the stairs and wincing.

"Was that really worth it…?" Naoto asked.

He continued to slide until he reached the floor, and lifted a hand to tilt his hat downwards. He didn't even bother trying to crawl away, "…. Yep."

Shaking her head and giving a small chuckle, Naoto walked back down and helped lift him up from the floor, patting off his oversized lab coat, "I got a response from Mitsuru-san, and told her that I would be online the moment I got home. She should be there waiting for us."

"Yay!" Kage clapped excitedly, already forgetting the pain in his knees. On his own, he probably didn't have too many memories of Mitsuru, if any at all. However, if this would put them one step closer to getting him back where he belonged, then that was reason to be happy.

Kage followed his host back upstairs and into her bedroom, quickly flopping onto the bed. Naoto turned on the computer and pointed it towards the bed so that the both of them would be in view of the built-in camera. Checking over Mitsuru's message, Naoto replicated the URL she had written down into a browser window and hit enter, letting the page load. What appeared was a simple multi-user chat interface that looked webcam compatible and of course, had instant messaging.

Hello.

Naoto typed, knowing she wasn't alone in the chat since one other user appeared online in the member list. Being as it was a private chat, the other individual must have been Mitsuru. The two of them were the only ones in the room. Once she was alerted to Naoto's presence, Mitsuru immediately switched to her camera. The face of a long, red-haired woman in a white shirt and bow appeared on screen.

"Good afternoon, Naoto-kun," she nodded lightly.

Naoto complied by turning on her camera as well, and the first thing she noticed was Mitsuru's surprised expression.

"There it is…" Mitsuru remarked, noticing Kage snuggling up into the bed sheets behind Naoto.

Naoto looked to him and nodded once before turning back to her, "Yes, it's a pleasure being able to talk to you again, Mitsuru-san."

"Indeed it is… Well, where to begin?" Mitsuru wondered, lifting a cup of tea to her lips and taking a small sip before setting it back down, "I suppose you'll just have to tell me everything you know so far."

Naoto nodded slowly, "Alright… It started eight days ago. Tatsumi-kun was assaulted on the streets by a gang here in Yagokoro. He claimed that they tried some sort of strange, harmless hand maneuver behind his neck. Like some sort of finger acupuncture. It wasn't a violent act and actually felt strangely relieving. I was later told that this had been dubbed 'Shadow Extraction' and it isn't nearly as harmless as it seems. The meaning behind the name should be pretty obvious. If done successfully, an apparition of your Persona appears here, in the real world."

"And so you had it done to you?" Mitsuru confirmed.

"Yes… A boy came to our school claiming that he could do it, and he did on a number of students. I was one of them… However, instead of showing up as a mere ghost, Yamato Takeru appeared to be completely tangible and real… Within seconds, he… well… he stabbed the student that conjured him. I haven't been able to locate this boy since, but I do believe that he is the key to returning Kage back to me," Naoto continued.

"Kage?" Mitsuru blinked.

Naoto sat up straighter, "Oh, sorry. That's what we're calling him, to make things easier…" she said, looking over her shoulder at the Shadow.

"He…" Mitsuru blinked again. Why was everyone so surprised about that fact? It was semiotics, that was all. Really. Mitsuru gave off a soft sigh, "And it's been here for a week like this…? With a name and everything…? Naoto, if there's anything that I would advise, it would be that you don't get too attached."

"It has been difficult…" Naoto admitted, looking away for a moment. She could feel Kage's insecure eyes staring at the back of her head. She continued, "But that's not all… The leader of that gang that first assaulted Kanji, Goro Yagi, died not too many days ago. What remained of his body on the inside was nothing more than a rancid gas and some shriveled up organs. I fear that it may be linked to the Shadow Extractions, as some sort of transmitted disease."

Mitsuru could see Naoto rubbing the back of her neck, a nervous fidget. She tried to alleviate the tension, "An S(E)TD?"

Naoto frowned, "Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?"

"I'm sorry…" Mitsuru shook her head and smiled, "But I have my doubts, and I don't believe you're in any peril from what you've described. I may know what this gas is… and yes, we can do some testing for both you and… Kage… but not here."

"You mean, not at Tatsumi Port Island?" Naoto questioned.

"Naoto…" Mitsuru sat back in her chair, "We cannot bring Kage here. We've been Shadow-free since that one incident years ago and considering what occurred during that time… I doubt he would want to be here in the first place. It would be like forcing a shell-shocked veteran back onto the battlefield." As she explained, the both of them could see Kage's expression drop from understanding. A great number of Shadows died during those experiments, and even more so when the lab exploded. Some escaped to an alternate Dark Hour world that was occupied by Tartarus, but those that failed the transition were… Well, actually, Naoto didn't know that one for a fact. They most likely died off if their human-counterpart had been caught in the explosion as well.

"Then how can you help us?" Naoto questioned.

"The only other option would be to have a sample sent our way. In fact… this would be most convenient. I understand that you have your hands full with your Shadow, but if Sousei is free then he would be able to deliver it to us. At the same time, I'd be able to do a check-up on him and when he returns, he could bring back to you a device that we have for such testing purposes. I'm sure we still have it…" Mitsuru stepped away from her computer for a moment and seemed to be shuffling through a number of desk drawers, "Aha, this one." She returned to her seat and held up what looked like a rather tacky, thick metal bracelet, "It contains a tiny needle that pricks the skin and wirelessly transmits all the information we need right back to the lab. If you wear this for a day or two, then we will be able to discern whether or not you're in any sort of trouble."

"A needle?" Naoto frowned.

Mitsuru nodded, "You won't even notice it… it's practically a sliver. As for Kage and how you'll manage to get a sample… well…"

Naoto sat up straight, "Wait, you don't mean…?" she quickly pulled out a drawer and acquired the beaker with the black ooze again, holding it up to the camera, "This stuff?"

Mitsuru tilted her head, "How did you get that…?"

"He… well, vomited it this morning. There's probably traces of shampoo mixed into it," she answered, phrasing her last sentence timidly.

Mitsuru looked over to the Shadow who tilted his head down with embarrassment, and she quickly chuckled, "The shampoo isn't a problem. That will do perfectly."

Naoto set the container down on the desk and looked for a surface to write a small label onto it. A piece of tape with the word 'Kage Sample' written onto it was suitable enough, "So, you said you knew what the gas was… Care to elaborate?"

"Oh, of course. If it is the same substance that I am thinking of, then… yes, it is most likely related to your Shadow Extraction case somehow. You see… after hearing your description, I can confirm that Shadow Extracting isn't a recent technique at all. In fact, it sounds alarmingly similar to something we discovered here in the Kirijo lab decades ago," Mitsuru's gaze was slowly inching off to the side, "I trust that you're not going to tell anyone what I'm about to say to you…"

Naoto sat back and shook her head, "I promise." Kage wasn't sure if he should cover his head with the thick comforter blanket or simply listen as if it didn't matter. He knew he was going to be bothered by this even if he didn't hear it.

"You're already aware that we did a number of experiments on a range of different Shadows back when their presence first became known to us. Unaware of what would happen, we took everything at a slow, meticulous pace with hopes that there would be no casualties during our operations. We were so careful not just for the Shadows' sakes, but because the very source at which we had obtained them from were… real human subjects." Again, just as grandpa had guessed… "The separation of the Shadows from their hosts required an abundant amount of neural technology rather than this… simple physical contact that you've described, but that's about the only difference that I can see. The human subjects claimed to feel a nearly orgasmic sensation during the extraction, and felt no short term effects immediately after. All seemed well… However, by the time we realized the long-term effect of the separation, we had already extracted eight Shadows. The hosts, in the long run, grew mentally unstable over time until they ultimately expired. It was revealed that within all of them, a strange haze had formed and decayed their innards over the span of two months. Oddly enough, they remained alive and healthy even when they reached a normally fatal condition. And further… this gas completely deceived our x-rays and other testing apparatus at the time. We had no idea that it was happening until we saw inside their corpses for ourselves…" Mitsuru closed her eyes and took a small break with a sip of her tea before continuing, "Each Shadow went wild at the point of its host's death and though we kept them contained until they died off, it seemed like their last goal was to reconnect with their recently deceased host. We… let it happen, just once. The Shadow made no attempt to revive its host or reconnect to the mind. Instead, it simply devoured the gas that had been left over. We kept this Shadow contained and it lasted on its own, hostless, for about another month… and then it too died."

Naoto could hear small whimpers coming from behind her, which then broke into full out crying as Kage buried his face into the bed sheets. "It-it's so sad…!" he uttered, failing to hold back any tears.

Naoto also felt the palms of her hands going clammy… "Alright… thank you for that vivid retelling…" Naoto spoke, shaking her head, "I thought you told me that I'm not in danger?"

"You're not," Mitsuru affirmed, "I'm sorry, I was getting to that point. We were lucky enough to make a breakthrough in evoker technology thanks to the eight Shadows that we had extracted and tested on. We made the best out of what we had while we had it, and it paid off. The first successful evoker was created, and with it we were able to cause an automatic Persona-awakening response within anyone who used it. At the same time, we had built a number of readers that were capable of detecting the level of hostile gas within a human. That technology would be the beta that lead up to the development of these bracelets," Mitsuru explained, twirling one of the metal bracelets in her hand. She continued, "There were two extracted humans who were still alive, and without hesitation they asked to use the evoker. Allowing it, we witnessed as the extracted Shadow transformed into its Persona counterpart and lost all hostility. After a few quick tests, we learned that the gas had also regressed into a harmless, dormant state that was able to be localized and removed. We realized that an awakened Persona would suppress the gas… and hence why I believe that you are in no such danger."

Naoto glanced over her shoulder at Kage and tilted her head, "He… IS still my Persona, isn't he?"

"They never revert, Naoto… at the fundamental level, he will always be your Persona. Physically, his appearance right now is nothing more than a deception. In fact, the two Personas that we had captive often preferred their Shadow states as well. In our world, anyways," Mitsuru spoke, "It seems as if the physical make-up of a Persona… whatever they may be made of, we never had the chance to test… simply isn't as stable as a Shadow's make-up."

Naoto looked back with confusion, "Wait… So you're saying that even with the evoker being used, the Shadows didn't return to their hosts upon becoming Personas?"

"They did not…" Mitsuru said softly, crossing her arms, "They never did."

Naoto bit her lower lip and remained silent until Mitsuru was forced to speak again.

The red-haired woman sighed, "We never made any attempt to return them. So I can't say that returning him to you is impossible, since we never tried."

Naoto's face looked relieved, and she hoped that the solution would be simple with the aid of Kirijo technology. "Alright… So you're saying that this gas only forms when a Shadow and its host have been physically separated, correct…? As far as I'm aware, the only one who's Shadow manifested into this physical world was mine. Otherwise, all the other Personas and Shadows that appeared simply vanished when the extraction was over."

"That's right, you said that Kanji-kun was Shadow Extracted before, yet the same thing didn't happen to him…" Mitsuru rested a hand against her chin, "There are a lot of changed variables between what happened at the lab and what is happening in your town now. I believe that all we can do is bring an extra bracelet for Kanji and see if there have been any changes to him as well," she lifted a finger matter-of-factly, "If we locate any gas within you, then it will be expected and we'll know how to deal with it. If we find any in him… however… then the reason for the gas's growth has somehow changed. There has been no separation between himself and his Persona… though he does have a Persona and should be perfectly fine because of that."

Naoto sat back uneasily in her chair, "But… not everyone does…"

"No…" Mitsuru slowly shook her head. It was obvious now that the life-sucking gas and the Shadow Extractions were indeed connected, but this mention of changed variables really put a damper on what Mitsuru thought she knew. They couldn't be sure of anything unless they got Naoto and Kanji tested, and that would have to wait until Sousei retrieved the bracelets. "We cannot waste time, then," Mitsuru spoke, "Get the sample to Sousei and have him sent back here. On a round trip, it shouldn't take him more than 24 hours to get back into Yagokoro. I will be swift with his check-up."

"Thank you, Mitsuru-san. I will send him over immediately," Naoto bowed delicately, taking the contained sample back into her hand. "… And for indulging me in everything you know, thank you as well… Truly, this has helped a lot. I feel I can actually make some progress on this case now."

Mitsuru waved a hand, "It was nothing. I look forward to talking to you again."

"Likewise," Naoto said with a soft smile, ending their goodbyes with another grateful nod.

* * *

The wind swept over Sousei's front hood as he made haste towards Tatsumi Port Island. By the time he had left the Shirogane estate it was already late in the evening and the sun was licking the horizon of the road. While he would have preferred a daytime drive, he could at least be happy that the highways wouldn't be busy. Following along the road with an internal GPS, Sousei calculated that the trip would take him at least six hours and that by the time he reached the island, it would be somewhere around two in the morning. Mitsuru would probably be at home and sleeping at that hour, so he would have to bide his time and wait until morning. Well, at least there was no rush.

Internally, Sousei went into a sort of auto-pilot during these long trips and that helped the time go by faster. Not that he was sleeping while driving or anything. He just didn't require as much focus as a human since there was no error in his driving skills. And in the off chance that someone else caused a problem on the road, he was always able to act with sharp reflexes. Besides, he had other things to mentally stew over during his trip, such as the things that he had overheard at the police station. Unfortunately, though he had plenty of opportunities to do so, Sousei never told Naoto about it when he could have. He had no evidence that Tetsuma's business talk had anything to do with the Shadow Extractions. In fact, it didn't sound related to it in the slightest. However, the topic of their discussion was obviously confidential and the man Tetsuma had talked to was supposed to be in charge of the Shadow Extraction case. Why would they converse over an unrelated case so soon? They wouldn't…

Every time Sousei snapped out of his internal monologue, he noticed that the moon had risen significantly higher into the sky and indicated to him that the hours were passing by just as quickly as he had hoped. At the point where the moon reached its peak and began falling again, Sousei began paying more attention to where he was going. Eventually, he noticed a glimmer in the distance, the constantly moving surface of a calm ocean reflecting the lights of the nearby skyscrapers. Yagokoro City nestled into the heart of Honshu Island and wasn't immediately connected to any bodies of water, so a trip outwards to a place such as Tatsumi Port Island was a real change of scenery. Though it wasn't so easy to see at night, the island was connected to the mainland by two routes, a train rail and a suspended bridge. The rails went directly to the island that housed Gekkoukan High School (or more secretly, the Kirijo Group's old base of operations), but the bridge required one to pass through the neighboring commerce island in order to reach the other.

With nothing else on him except for what Naoto had given him, Sousei had no way to disguise his mechanical parts. There were a number of nighttime clubs and arcades in the Paulownia mall district that caught his eye, but he didn't want to cause a fuss over his appearance. It was unfortunate, but he would have to make his way to Gekkoukan without any breaks.

_At least Aigis-neechan doesn't have these huge clunky legs_… He thought to himself with resentment. Aigis, another model of the Kirijo Group androids, had the most human-like figure and was capable of effortlessly covering it up with human clothing. The best disguise Sousei had was, of course, being a motorcycle, but he couldn't enjoy activities like clubbing and arcades that way. Oh well, it had been awhile since he last visited the labs under Gekkoukan High School. He would find some way to keep occupied until the morning. Making a sprinting jump over the metal gate surrounding the school, he unlocked the front doors with his own personal identification card and, using the same method, casually entered the restricted underground levels of Gekkoukan.

The inactive remains of a secret laboratory once wrought with controversy and death… Some of the technology that remained was still functional and monitored, but there were no more experiments like the ones witnessed decades ago. There was simply no reason to demolish such expensive tools as long as they were harmless when unused. So, the labs under the school were rebuilt after the explosion incident and served as a storage space for anything that survived. For instance, all inactive Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons were kept incased here.

Sousei walked down to a familiar room where a couple dozen rows of black boxes could be seen lined up against the walls. Upon each box was engraved the unit name and generation of the android kept inside, and it didn't take Sousei too long to find his own. Staring up at the container, he was proud to say that he had been inactive only a couple of times in his life. There was almost always a use for him. Most of the androids that remained here were either outdated beta versions or unfixed models. Sousei took a moment to close his eyes and sympathize for those that didn't see as much of the world as he did. Though time passed for all dormant models instantaneously until their next activation, it was still unfortunate to see a decade old model only be used once and then stuffed into storage.

With his eyes closed, Sousei suddenly became attuned to a weak, unexpected sensation. Clenching one of his fists, he felt an odd frequency coming through that interrupted most of his sensors. He expected it to pass soon… Perhaps something was simply flying overhead and blocking off his satellite transmissions. But it wasn't going away… Sousei kneeled down for a moment and shook his head, trying to shake off the fuzzy static that made it difficult to think.

Static…

… And two times in one day? All at once, before he could even react to it, Sousei rose to his feet beyond his own control. He tried to turn his head in order to understand the reasoning behind it, but he couldn't control that either. Witnessing as his mechanical body moved itself forward, he felt his gaze move up and down the hallway of black boxes, reading every label and discerning whether or not the android was being stored. Left with nothing but his own mental understanding of what was going on, Sousei internally panicked and tried to find a way to halt his functions. But there was nothing… As his body continued its walking, it made its way to one particular box with the name 'Ai Kurogami' printed over it. It was empty, of course… But his eyes seemed to stare at it with a prolonged fascination before he abruptly tilted his head up. One of his hands lifted and pressed against the side of his head.

"Ah…" a difference voice from his own spoke out from his lips.

_That voice…!_ Sousei mentally projected in an alarmed tone.

His hand lowered on its own, "You won't remember this…" the familiar voice spoke in response. As Sousei's eyes closed, his internal self-awareness also deactivated and there was nothing left to perceive but darkness.

April 17th, 2013, Wednesday

How much time had passed since Mitsuru found him sitting limply in the laboratory's main lobby? It must have been morning by now since she was here, but there was no indication of sunlight down at this level. How Sousei had gotten there was also a mystery… The last thing he remembered was coming down into this lobby, but not the point at which he had put himself into rest mode. Did it matter? Maybe he had been more tired than expected from his long drive and since this was the first place he had finally stopped, he simply knocked himself out before overheating. Something like this didn't happen often… but it was entirely possible.

"Thank you for coming, Sousei. I apologize for not being around when you arrived, but I couldn't keep myself up last night," Mitsuru spoke, "Were you waiting long?"

Sousei brought himself to his feet and looked around to make sure there were no damages from falling asleep so quickly, "I don't believe so. I honestly don't remember the exact time I got here…"

"Mnn? Having memory hiccups?" she asked.

Sousei shook his head, "Not sure. I brought what you asked, though," he said, reaching down into a side compartment where he kept the Kage sample stored and, yes, thankfully it was still there. He offered it.

Nodding, Mitsuru accepted the container and glanced over its contents, tilting the beaker from side to side a few times, "Well, I can check up on your processors and circuitry to make sure everything is how it should be. I planned to anyways since you've been out for so long. 'You're due', I should say."

"Then let's be brief," he answered, ready to follow her to the testing labs.

* * *

Inside a dim room illuminated by little more than a row of computer screens, Sousei kept himself situated on an angled panel with body-shaped depressions for resting against. Within the incurved segments, particularly around the neck and wrists, were a series of male-end connectors that had been plugged into him. He kept his eyes closed and allowed the data transmission to stream from his memory, causing a nostalgic sensation that he had not felt in years. The information travelled through the plugs and outwards to the computers that Mitsuru carefully monitored.

As information trickled in, Mitsuru noticed that there were a number of recent sections in his perceived memory that were skewed or outright missing, "Memory hiccups, indeed…"

Sousei remained silent as it was necessary during the transmission. However, the moment it ended and the plugs retracted into the panel, he sat up and looked towards the screens. He too was able to read that something had been wrong, "I cannot explain that… I'll admit I've been feeling some odd external inconsistencies lately, but nothing that seemed harmful."

Mitsuru crossed her arms, "There is a chance that you're being tampered with, Sousei. However, very few people have been down in these facilities lately, let alone on the manual override servers. But I wouldn't cross it off as a possibility…"

Sousei frowned, "And how am I to prevent this?"

"There isn't much that I can do now except to keep tabs on you and assume that if it happens again, that I'll be able to pinpoint the source of your interference. The override function is a key component to your programming that I can't simply turn off," Mitsuru admitted.

"So be it…" Sousei spoke, reclining back into the panel with a sigh as Mitsuru checked over his other inputs and vitals. As far as she could see, everything else was in perfect working order.

"So… you've managed to keep yourself surprisingly under control with a Shadow-identified creature roaming about nearby," Mitsuru spoke, "There have been no issues?"

Sousei shook his head, "He's as passive as they come… Well, alright, there was one time where he turned hostile, but he was very quickly subdued with system 17 sedatives. I was not around to witness the transformation, so I don't know the reason for it. I could guess… but… I believe it was slightly inappropriate."

"Mmn, then let me check through your list of recent scans," Mitsuru spoke as she opened a window that was up-to-date with only one listed scan. The anomaly was catalogued as Amatsu Mikaboshi, "Well, this doesn't seem relevant…"

Sousei looked over from his spot again and read the name, "No, that was the one."

"Was it?" Mitsuru tilted her head slightly, "There is no registered host..." As she scrolled through the list of given information, Mitsuru stumbled upon a pair of words that shook her with surprise, "Variant… cancerous…? … Oh no," quickly reaching down into her pockets, she retrieved the beaker of ooze and tilted it in her hand.

"Oh no?" Sousei questioned.

Mitsuru stood up from her spot and pulled out a tall device from the corner that was being carted on wheels. It looked somewhat like an elongated microscope, but what would have been a lens was a lengthy needle that angled downwards. Transferring the contents of the beaker into a container that was more suitable for the device, Mitsuru placed it before the needle and punctured into the surface of the slime. All at once, a number of statistics and readings appeared on another computer screen next to Sousei's.

"I need to cross-examine this information immediately. We might have a problem," Mitsuru announced.

"Is it the 'cancerous' part that's bothering you, or the misidentification? It looks like he isn't a terribly uncommon class of Shadow…" he reminded her, "Nor are they aggressive to humans."

Mitsuru's shoulders dropped, "Sousei, being a detective on the force, I would have expected better deduction skills from you… You truly don't see the problem?" she asked, and received nothing more than a blank stare. She followed up, "What are cancerous types aggressive to, then?"

"Other Shadows," Sousei answered matter-of-factly then proceeded to read from an internal source, "Variant list - Cancerous - A defense-mechanism Shadow described as having the ability to regress into a contaminant state that, from then on, can only be sustained through other Shadows. Harmless to humans." Sousei shook his head, "It is their last defense. Weakened, they submit their existence to another Shadow and they very rarely manage to create a co-operation. They are more likely to be cannibalized than assisted. I hate to say it but… Naoto's got a pretty sad sort of Shadow."

"And at what point did we say that this was her Shadow?" Mitsuru asked, glancing at the result of Sousei's scans.

Sousei sat up. _Oh, right…_

Mitsuru's eyes shifted to the readings that appeared from the collected substance. There was a considerable amount of differences between the two readings, "What you scanned before and what Naoto gave me here… are two completely different Shadows," she turned to Sousei with an intimidating glare and raised her voice, "Therefore, Mr. Kurogami?"

"He's… got a cancer?" Sousei answered meekly, sinking into the pod.

"Thank you!" she answered, glad to be back on the same page, "I swear, I was worried you were more broken than I first thought… Indeed, what you scanned was never Naoto's Shadow. Hence your lack of aggression around him, I suppose, if all this time you thought he was a simple cancerous type…"

"Then what is he?" Sousei requested.

"A Shadow you should have taken the opportunity to scan multiple times, Sousei," she disciplined, getting that out of the way first. Swiveling on her chair towards him, she continued, "Tell me what you remember about parasite variants."

"Para… site…" Sousei uttered, "… Parasite - A Defense-mechanism Shadow described as having the ability to regress into a contaminant state that, from then on, can only be regenerated through another being. High risk… to humans."

Mitsuru's fingers intertwined and rested under her chin as she kept her stare on Sousei, "They sound rather similar, don't they?"

"They do… but a parasite's aggression is not restricted to its own kind. Nor does it simply co-exist within its host… It outright devours and regenerates within it, taking the life of its host in order to renew its battered body. A cancerous type could only dream of having that much power," Sousei remarked.

Mitsuru closed her eyes, "Which could be the reason why that particular cancer targeted our… very particular Kage."

Sousei winced as he turned his attention back to the monitors and confirmed for himself what Mitsuru was trying to say, "Subject, Shadow. Variant, parasite, recessive cancer… Host, Naoto Shirogane. Treatment, containment of the regressed state. In case of contamination, extermination of the victim is necessary…" he quickly looked back to Mitsuru.

Before he could exclaim his disbelief, Mitsuru was already on him about it, "It would have been nice to know this sooner, no?" she spoke, "And perhaps you did… at one point. From what I can tell within your own records, these memory skips of yours are a very recent phenomenon… in fact, just a few days old. In retrospect, I realize that they may have nothing to do with your Shadow Extraction case, but your own issues instead. However, I feel that if someone is tampering with your memory, then there is something they don't want you to know… Ultimately, it could be a Shadow that doesn't want you to know very much about him."

Sousei rested a finger against his forehead and sighed, "You're saying that Kage is affecting my memory? I see… So the residents of Inaba won't be the only ones who have trust issues with him."

"See through it logically, Sousei… He may act innocent, but he is what he is. If he felt threatened, he would go into an aggressive auto-drive fueled by what we consider when categorizing them as 'variants'. A parasite type has quite the advantage in our world. With all the humans available, he could regenerate through any one of them. So, during his time here, it is imperative that you don't allow such an outburst," Mitsuru spoke as she rose back to her feet. She began collecting together the little souvenir bracelets that Sousei would be taking back home for Naoto. "Of course, I would say that so far, you've been doing just fine… I doubt that if something bad happened, it would be your fault. No, my biggest concern is over that little Hyde you scanned… I'm not sure if he's even aware of it."

"You mean the cancer?" Sousei questioned, "I wonder if it would be safe to ask him about it."

"With caution, Sousei…" she answered, handing him the devices which he safely stored in the same compartment that he brought the sample within. Mitsuru then walked him back in the direction of the lab's entrance, "I would also like to ask that you provide me with frequent updates on any information that you deem vital. If we catch anything else going missing from your memory, then we'll likely have struck gold. Additionally, with the Shadow Extraction case… well, unfortunately we're going to have to wait on the results from those bracelets."

Sousei pat his side gently, "I hope that things will clear up then… For now, it was nice seeing you again, Kirijo-san. I should be quick."

"Yes, if you make your leave now, you should easily get back before Shirogane-kun gets home from school. If you can make time to confront Kage about his transformation, then that will be all the better," she answered, walking him out to the front gates of Gekkoukan High. Mitsuru gave Sousei space as he reconstructed into his bike form and emitted a couple revs of acknowledgement, starting off his lengthy return trip back to Yagokoro City.


	12. Chapter 12

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

The young cyborg leaned back into his favorite position on the computer chair, its two front legs lifted off the ground as he sat back with his ankles pressed into the edge of the study desk. The pushing of his feet rocked him back and forth in a gentle sway and his knees curled up against his chest, simulating a fetal position. Kage closed his eyes and mindlessly kept his balance, more focused on the ebbing stream of information that flowed from the computer in front of him, through the self-affixed USB plug, and into his hungry mind where it dispersed and satisfied. The process had become a routine, daily event that took up no more than fifteen minutes of his day while Naoto was out at school. On the off days where he couldn't find time to be alone, such as during the past weekend, he had gone hungry and became terribly uncomfortable around any non-Naoto humans. He wouldn't hurt his host, not for the world. But unfortunately, no one else had that privilege. Even the sight of Kanji occasionally made his jaw clench.

Opening his eyes and staring at the computer screen, Kage caught one of his fingers in his own mouth, his teeth pressed down on the boney joint. He quickly released it and shook his hand, pouting softly.

_No… you're better than that._ He thought to himself. It was a shame that his internet crutch food lacked any kind of real substance. Not that substance served any sort of purpose except to quell his hunting desires. But how much of a Shadow could be domesticated anyways? Kage required substance like a human required tasty flavors. Unneeded, but appealing. He suspected that a human who had grown up in a life of prosperity would find it difficult to eat nothing but plain rice cakes and water for a month. Very little of it, even… Forcing changes like that could drive a man insane if he was weak-willed. But no… _You're better than that._

Kage's meditative thoughts came to a halt as the stream of savory data ceased its flow. Curious, he fell forwards into a regular seated position in the chair, with all legs flat on the ground, and checked the USB. Still connected… The website? He refreshed the page and no, nothing had gone offline. He wondered if, perhaps, he had cleared the website of everything it had to offer? That was impossible. Just as everyone who had their noses buried in the recent news knew, MyPlace had managed to successfully recollect and backup its user data again. Kage had learned that as long as he left the server's backups alone, he could continuously nourish himself off the recurring user accounts that the backups generated for him. How could it go wrong? Accounts would vanish for, at most, 10 minutes before being regenerated. That wasn't too inconvenient, was it? He only plucked off, say… 5000 a day, but there were hundreds of millions of users in total. His feasting didn't even scratch the tip of the iceberg… but apparently that was enough to be an issue. Kage grit his teeth as he tried to force his way through the server's sudden encryptions and firewalls, but to no avail. He had been blocked out.

"Whatever…" he sighed softly, "… Drink from one well too often and it'll run dry. There are others," he remembered. If there was one thing about the internet that was both good and bad, it was that there were numerous websites that all offered the exact same thing. Humans were competitive over everything… especially originality. So, what were the other ones? FaceWork? Chatter? LifeJournal? He located one at a time and as expected, the resulting data was just as scrumptious as what could be found on MyPlace. However, his jubilations didn't last for very long at all. He was able to spend no more than a minute on each site until his connection was severed and he could no longer access the data. Each and every single one… Even the most ambiguous and unknown of social media websites were restricting access to him.

Kage's fingers gripped his hair and pulled lightly. How were they catching him so fast? Action was being taken the moment he invaded a website, yet he was certain that his piracy could leave no trace because he wasn't a recognized CPU in any sense… But Naoto's computer was. That had to be it… They had linked his actions to her ISP. But the time in which it took them to do it simply didn't add up.

Kage sat back in his chair and narrowed his eyes at the computer screen, "I have not changed my methods at all this past week… If all they had to do was simply trace my actions through Naoto's computer, than I would have been discovered long ago. No… the computers I've been using couldn't have anything to do with this. The link I have made through this unit travels to their servers not under its own name, but my own… and I simply cannot be recognized. Furthermore, this computer still has access to the website… It is I who does not," He muttered thoughts to himself out loud; wondering if maybe there was something about these human computers that he had misunderstood. Had he accidentally revealed himself at one point? He couldn't fathom how. Unhooking his built-in USB from the computer, he let it rewind until it was once again concealed within his mouth.

"But then, how did they recover those backups? It was thoughtless of me, yes, but I do recall completely devouring every trace of those first user accounts. Unless they had backups of their backups. They claimed they didn't, though…" Kage could feel his finger rising back up to his mouth. This time, he was biting down on it in thought. This was no time to question where he had gone wrong. It was time to answer something he feared even having to ask… 'What now?' The internet was no longer a reliable food source. That much was obvious. Unless he could find another substitute that fit the bill, things would start getting very tricky. Wonderful… And here Kage was just trying to get along in this world without having to cause an even worse crime.

"It's the better of two evils, damnit… Maybe they'd just understand?" he spoke under his breath as he paced back and forth in Naoto's room.

"Who would understand what?" asked a voice from beyond the doorway.

Kage's immediate reaction would have been to punch a fist right through the computer to destroy every bit of evidence of his internet-snoopage. But despite his surprise, he was able to resist such temptations. Pressing a toe against the power button, he held it until the computer turned off, his eyes staring hard at the doorway, "Grandpa?"

"… I don't sound that old, do I?" asked the other, poking his head into the room. It was Sousei, and he had returned early just as planned. There was still plenty of time before Naoto would return home.

Kage looked immediately relieved, "Oh, you're back, Wheels."

"And where did you pick up that nickname?"

Kage bit his lower lip, "Naoto said it once?" Well, Touko had said it once before in a humored remark on Naoto's MyPlace page. Indeed, that was someone he recalled within her memories a few times.

"And so it spreads like the plague… Anyways. I realize that this is probably the first time that we've had a chance to talk since you've arrived. Just us, I mean." Sousei mentioned.

Kage plopped down onto the bed and sat upright, holding his toes together between two clasped hands. This was true… Every time Sousei and Kage had been together, Naoto was there as well. Though, the dynamic between the two now, alone in the room, was uncomfortable. "Yes…" was all he could answer with, nodding softly.

"I hope you don't mind if I have a few questions," Sousei spoke, "… Some potentially personal ones."

"Like what?" Kage asked with a frown, "I'm not allowed to tell you host-kun's subconscious secrets."

Sousei shook his head, "No, it isn't about Shirogane-san. Actually, it is specifically about you and your behavior lately."

"M-me?" Kage asked. He could feel himself rattling inside with nervousness. Could it have possibly been Sousei…? Was Sousei the one that caught him and severed his access to the internet? Dear god, he could feel the spankings already.

"If you could recall for me last Wednesday morning. I believe there was an unexpected shift in your psyche that night which was offset by some sort of event. Do you remember at all?" he questioned.

Oh, thank goodness… this had nothing to do with the computer. Kage sighed and looked up, trying to reminisce over his past week. He arrived on Tuesday in the evening, so the next day was Wednesday… "Let's see, that morning I was offered some vile substance called 'scrambled egg'. Before that, Naoto helped me get dressed… And then, before that? I don't remember much before that, actually… I guess I woke up or something."

"What happened before you woke up?" Sousei urged on.

"I was sleeping? No, wait… I was doing something… I… oh, right!" Kage clapped his hands together, "Kanji-kun put something inside of me, and it felt good."

Sousei stood still for a moment. How was he supposed to word this? From the get-go, he was suffering through this conversation. "Was it… something between his legs?"

"Was it? Maybe… it felt so good that I couldn't really think about it," Kage answered so directly that Sousei almost lost his footing. "I don't really know what it was, but it just happened all of a sudden."

Sousei's face was void of all expression. He was quite tempted to just walk out of the room now and pretend that this little talk never occurred. He mustered every bit of will-power and let the question fly. "Was it a liquid?"

"I don't think so?"

"Hold on," Sousei walked out. He just… walked out.

This topic clearly wasn't his forte. He stood outside the door in the hallway with a hand plastered over his face, the other one resting against the wall that he was leaning on. Why did he have to think about this? It was difficult enough, trying to sift through all the innuendos in order to figure out exactly why, during that moment of intimacy, Kage might have changed. Why then, of all times? This was like some sort of bad fanfiction, trying to justify putting two characters in bed together as some sort of major plot point. Who did such a thing?

"It wasn't a liquid… He's not talking about… that," Sousei assured himself, "Something else happened. But it felt… good," he lifted his hand from his face at that word. "Good?"

Kage's neck was starting to hurt. His head had tilted from confusion the moment Sousei left the room oh-so suddenly and he remained that way. After a minute or two, Kage was finally able to look straight when Sousei re-entered the room. "What's wrong?" the little one asked.

"Obviously a lot of things went wrong that night, but I'm not here to discipline you. You said that this other thing… felt good. And you described it as being 'put in you'?"

"That's right. I stopped remembering things after that, though."

Sousei crossed his arms in thought, "So that's when the transformation took place. And from what you're saying, I assume you don't remember anything from the time when you were Amatsu Mikaboshi?"

"What the heck is that?" Kage questioned.

"… Interesting," Sousei wouldn't indulge Kage in that answer. Not yet… He was clearly unaware of his own cancer, and that was probably for the better. Sousei continued, "There is another phenomenon that we know of which causes notable amounts of 'good feels'. One that only those who have had it done upon them can do to others."

"Oh, you're talking about the Shadow Extractions?" Kage smiled. When he was met with a pause, the Shadow continued to think along those lines until he realized it as well, "Wait… that? That's what it was?"

"Could you see it possible that Tatsumi-kun Shadow Extracted you during your time together? Even if by accident?" Sousei asked.

Kage quickly nodded, "Maybe he did. Yes, I'm certain that whatever he put in me then wasn't tangible. Nor really of this world… I didn't think about it much because I lost consciousness right after it happened. But I guess it might have been…" upon realization, he squeaked with panic, "A… Am I going to shrivel up and die on the inside…!? Like Goro? From that terrible S(E)TD?"

"I can't say for certain if it would affect you at all… You don't have human organs. Well, not all of them. But biologically, you can't be compared to a human in the slightest. This is, of course, bothersome… I don't know what will happen to you," Sousei admitted.

Well, something had certainly happened that morning. For a human, the typical response to a Shadow Extraction would be a temporary appearance of their Persona in the real world. For someone without a Persona, however, such as Kage… and being the very particular Shadow that he was… something else quite unexpected happened. His dormant cancer was not only awakened, it also briefly took over him.

"But, we're getting tested, right?" Kage blinked hopefully.

"Naoto and Kanji are… with these," Sousei spoke, opening the compartment where he safely kept the pair of bracelets. Having completed his delivery, he placed them down on the computer desk where he was certain that Naoto would find them. "As for you, I will have to inform Mitsuru about this recent development. Since we already have a piece of you at the lab, she can do her testing directly. Perhaps we'll find something, and if it matches up between all three of you, then we'll have made an important connection." As Sousei declared his next objective he looked straight at Kage, "And please, do make sure that I talk to Mitsuru about this. Ask me later if I did."

Kage lifted a brow, "Why?"

"I've been unsure about my memory lately. I may suddenly forget, but this is something that both she and Naoto need to know," he answered, eager to get onto it before such a thing could happen.

Kage rested a flat hand to his forehead in salute, "Aye aye, cap'n."

Sousei returned a brief smile as he left the room, finding that it was easier to make long-distance transmissions while outside. He had so much to tell Mitsuru… Whatever happened to Kage last week was, most likely, a first for all Shadows.

* * *

At least another hour had passed and when she was finally home, Naoto made her way towards her bedroom. However, just before entering, her ears picked up the alarming sound of a chainsaw ripping through some sort of organic, splattering substance. Instinctively concerned for the well-being of her family and guardians, Naoto burst into the bedroom and caught Kage… deeply engrossed in a computer game. As another life was lost and the Shadow was forced to re-do a level, he rose his hands into the air and emitted a delighted holler. Curious, Naoto crept up behind him and stared over his shoulder, witnessing as another player was tossed into a spiky pit of certain death.

"Why are you intentionally falling into the traps?" she questioned, causing Kage to jump up in his seat.

Quickly looking over his shoulder, he stared up with round, guilty eyes, "Host-kun! … I- … It's funny?"

"Funny?" Naoto tilted her head, "It seems like a very graphic game to me..."

"I know…" he tittered, tapping the points of his fingers together before his wickedly wide grin.

"It's nice to know that I've been sleeping next to a psychopath this whole time, Kage. Thank you for that."

"I should make a note to remind you of that every day," he spoke nonchalantly and turned back to his game, purposely falling into the most brutal trap he had found so far, "Oh, uhm. Sousei-san came back today. He left those there," as Kage spoke, he pointed blindly to the metal objects on the desk.

From that, Naoto noticed the bracelets and took one in hand, "Yes, I saw him outside… It seemed like he had just gotten off a call with Mitsuru."

"That's good," Kage spoke up, "He was afraid he was going to forget about that, or something."

"Mmn? I suppose he could be preoccupied, but it's not like him to forget such things. Mitsuru's advice is now key to our progression with this case, after all…" Naoto spoke as she looked over the bracelet. It was quite inconspicuous, being nothing more than a thin stainless steel band on the outside with a small stud on one end. On the inside, however, it was obvious that the stud was some sort of injection and locking mechanism for the needle that was stored inside. "Speaking of which, I'm going to need that," Naoto spoke, looking at the computer. Even if the bracelet seemed straight-forward, she wasn't about to try on this piece of delicate equipment without Mitsuru's instructions.

Kage's flappy sleeves immediately flung and wrapped around the sides of the computer, his cheek pressed against the screen, "But… but I've almost beaten iiiit," he whined.

"I bet you're not even past the first level," she noted, and tried to sit down on the chair next to him in order to make him give it up. However, since Kage was so adamant on keeping his chair (or at least found amusement in trying to do so), he smooshed up against Naoto's side and held onto his tiny corner of the seat. Bearing with his resilience, Naoto minimized his game and re-entered the chat from before. Checking to make sure that the camera was set up properly, Naoto attempted to initiate a call with Mitsuru.

Within that brief ten second pause of waiting, Kage reached over and took Naoto's chin, forcing her to face his way.

"What are you doing?" she questioned with a stern glare.

"Let's make out."

Naoto quickly slapped his hand away and regained control, "Do you think that's funny!?"

As the call was answered, all Mitsuru could hear was Naoto's last line, a slapping noise, and all she could see was a whimpering Shadow with what looked like Naoto's backhand facing his slapped cheek. Mitsuru frowned, "… I… Well, I mean, I told you not to get attached, Shirogane. But that doesn't mean you have to hit it…"

"Kirijo-san!" Naoto sat up straight, "That wasn't what it looked like."

Mitsuru's eyes glanced at the Shadow who, despite all his shivering, was obviously trying to hold back his laughter. "I see… I'm sure it wasn't," she spoke, folding her hands in front of her, "Either way, I'm glad to see that you're well. And that my package got there safely?"

"It did," Naoto answered, holding both bracelets up, "This call was mainly to let you know that. But also… well, I've obviously never used something like this before. If you had any advice, it would help."

"Of course," Mitsuru answered, "For one thing, you'll find that the bracelet is too small to pass your hand through. One end has the injection point, which should be the most obvious. You'll find that the sides around it will disconnect. You can fit it around your arm that way. Though, please, I would recommend sterilizing your wrist before doing this. The needle inside is never used twice, but… safety is safety."

Following Mitsuru's instruction, Naoto nodded and left for the bathroom to wash and swab some alcohol onto her skin. While she was there, she carefully separated the bracelet in half and reconnected it around her wrist. The sides where it could be connected again were adjustable and allowed her to create a snug fitting. "Is this right?" she asked as she returned to the computer where Kage was making amusing faces at the screen. Mitsuru was doing an impressive job at ignoring him.

"Yes. Though, I'm sorry if it is uncomfortable. It should be tight enough so that it doesn't move," Mitsuru explained, to which Naoto nodded and made sure. "Now, with the injection point on the underside of your wrist, you simply need to press down on the protrusion and the needle will lock into place. If everything is alright, it shouldn't hurt. Minor swelling is normal, but will pass within an hour. Additionally, the only way to unlock the needle is to disassemble the entire bracelet again. If you end up having to do that, don't attempt to reuse the needle."

"Safety is safety…" Naoto repeated, pressing her thumb down on the round stud. It felt like something clicked into place, but to her surprise, there was no sting. "That didn't hurt at all…" she remarked, blinking.

"The needle is more of a reader than a tube for injection. It is quite tiny and unnoticeable. Furthermore, with the exception of the injection spot, the bracelet is coated in anti-bacterial silver that will serve you like a bandage."

"Impressive… I suppose all we have to do then is hope that Tatsumi-kun will also be co-operative. I will help him with his the next time I see him," Naoto spoke, "How long did you say it will take before you find anything?"

Mitsuru looked up towards another screen, "Actually, I'm getting in readings already. Though, right now it is in the process of registering you and that could take some time. We should have some vague results by tomorrow, but I only trust the results we get after two or three days. The reader tracks your vitals throughout the day and if it does pick up the haze we're looking for, it will continue to track that for any changes as well. The changes are the important part, which is why we need to have you and Kanji wear these for an extended duration of time. From those readings, we can see whether or not the haze is suppressed, and how fast it is growing if it isn't."

Naoto shuffled uneasily in her seat, still paranoid over the subject. On one side, she hoped that they would find traces of the haze and get one step closer to discovering its cause. But if it was true… then an uncounted number of people could already be fatally ill because of it. Though, apparently she and Kanji wouldn't be on that list. "So again… you've had cases where a person's Persona reverted itself to a Shadow, physically, and the haze was still suppressed?"

Mitsuru sighed and nodded, "Yes… Like I said, most of them preferred that form. In fact, there's your proof. Just sitting right there, Shirogane, Kage's doing its job as a Persona. It just doesn't know it."

Kage looked up with a naïve blink, tilting his head at the computer screen.

"You're not fooling anyone in that skin… You're hardly human. You could at least try every once in a while to reconnect yourself with who you actually are," Mitsuru advised, waving a 'go ahead' motion at him.

"But that body doesn't work here…" Kage frowned, "Imagine if carbon didn't exist in the Mayonaka Realm. For you, that's how I feel here. Something's just missing…" he attempted to explain.

"So, biologically, Personas are made up of something 'more' than Shadows? Something we cannot find in our world?" Mitsuru asked curiously.

"I guess…" Kage shrugged, feeling the double pairs of eyes watching him. Staring back and forth between them, he felt a kick of peer pressure telling him that his claim needed to be proven. Giving off a soft whimper, he tilted his head down and gave it a try. Starting from his feet and growing upwards was an ethereal blue glow that highlighted his skin until his features were no longer defined. As the glow began to dissipate, Naoto felt a sudden weight on her shoulder and arm. There, right before them, was Sukuna-Hikona gracelessly trying to cling to Naoto's side for support. The tiny moth boy made no attempt to float. Such a trick just wasn't going to work out here.

"Kage…?" Naoto blinked, trying to pick up the tiny creature in her hands. Adorning a buttoned blue shirt, shorts and moth wing-like cape, the Sukuna that Naoto once remembered looked rather rough and torn at the edges. Sitting no taller than 12 inches, the battered little creature stared back at her and refused to say any words. Of course, while wearing a mask and everything else to cover himself up, it was impossible to say whether or not Kage looked the same underneath. Did he even have a mouth?

"Quite unpolished…" Mitsuru mentioned, watching the little Persona with her head tilted into one hand.

Hearing that, Kage slowly turned his head to look back at the screen, shoulders raised. The longer he spent in this form, the more Kage began to develop a soft shiver even though he was warmed by his host's hands. Eventually, he fell down onto his side and curled up tightly, looking terribly unwell. Worried, Naoto rubbed his back with a single finger and leaned in close to inspect him. He couldn't last in that form for more than 30 seconds, and all at once his will-power caved in. He very abruptly reverted back to his comfortable human-like form, collapsing on top of Naoto, no less.

"Are you alright?" Mitsuru blinked quickly, leaning forwards.

Naoto was having a difficult time keeping the chair from falling backwards. Reverted, Kage had landed on her lap. However, he was completely unconscious and leaning against her, putting all of his weight on the back of the chair. "Just… fine…" Naoto spoke with a strained voice, holding him up from under his arms, "Hold on…"

Finally having braced her feet on the ground, Naoto stood up straight and made a strong effort to carry Kage back over to the bed. Thank goodness it wasn't very far. When she had him laid down and resting, she pat herself down and sighed, "He didn't have to do that…"

"No, but that was quite the intriguing state he was in…" Mitsuru spoke, "Is he alright?"

"He's just out cold. I imagine whatever he's missing has to do with keeping him energized. Trying to hold that appearance drained him so quickly…" Naoto deduced, taking the computer chair again. She kept her eye on him in case he would quickly come to, but so far that seemed unlikely.

"Well, I hate to put it this way, but this does give us the opportunity to have a little talk…" Mitsuru spoke, "To be fair, you might want to tell Kage about it later if he wants to know, but Sousei and I discovered a few unsettling things about your Shadow while he was here."

"Unsettling…?" Naoto looked back to Mitsuru. Wonderful, another thing to be worried about… "Something more unsettling than him simply being here?"

"By far," Mitsuru said softly. "To begin, I'll have to explain our past methods of study when it came to Shadows. Because of their nature as psychologically-driven creatures that aren't normally of this realm, we felt it was important to invent a sort of Shadow-specific taxonomy that would help us classify and recognize their various types. Naturally, we chose a psychological basis for this. We grouped them based on their defense mechanisms, or otherwise their fight-or-flight responses, primarily to discern whether or not they were aggressive or passive creatures. Some were one, some were the other. The chosen term used was a Shadow's 'variant', and we eventually perfected the study to the point where a simple analysis would reveal a Shadow's variant without us ever having to witness it."

"So it has something to do with whatever variant of Shadow he is?" Naoto questioned.

"Potentially…" Mitsuru answered, "While in this form, he has the mannerisms and instincts of a Shadow, and ultimately the same sort of defensive reflexes. His variant is a particularly aggressive type: a 'Parasite' type that gradually devours a host as its last resort, when its situation has gone fatal. It prefers both Human and Shadow hosts alike."

Naoto swallowed that knowledge with shrunken pupils, "As a last resort, you said…? He has no threats here. He's perfectly safe."

"Which is the one fortunate thing," Mitsuru nodded, "You shouldn't have a problem. However, we had a second concern… And as odd as this sounds, it relates back to the transformation that you witnessed a week ago. The one time that he went aggressive, do you remember?"

"Yes… I've never seen him act that way before. Not even two years ago when I first saw him."

"That's because what you saw wasn't him. Quite ironically, you could say that your Shadow is hosting another Shadow, and on that night it awakened for a brief period of time. For what reason…? We believe that it was, in fact, extracted from him… through the same means that you've been following on this current case. And it was done by none other than Kanji Tatsumi."

Naoto rested a hand to her forehead, "You're saying that… Kanji turned Kage aggressive? By Shadow Extracting something within him?"

"Whatever freak accident allowed it to happen, yes… Unfortunately, I can't find much information on this second Shadow of yours. It may actually be another part of you, or otherwise was another parasitic Shadow that we call 'Cancerous'. A very lesser, ineffective form of parasite."

"Cancer is a big word for a little parasite…"

"Well… After witnessing what happened to him last week, I'm sure you can deduce why we called them 'Cancers'. It is an abnormal self-mutation which commonly causes transformations such as that. The abnormality begins when another Shadow hides itself inside a host, where it lays dormant and simply hopes for a chance," Mitsuru explained, "If Kage is the fight-parasite, then a cancer is the flight-parasite."

Naoto leaned back into her chair and took a deep breath, eyeballing the Shadow on her bed from the corner of her vision. "I hate to think that any of that even matters…" she whispered, "Though, in retrospect, we should have had him out of our world days ago. The fact that this is taking so long is bothersome… It scares me to think that the longer he's here, the harder it will be for him to leave."

"Or the harder it will be for you to let him go?" Mitsuru asked.

Naoto kept her lips sealed. She couldn't admit to that… not so openly. "I will make time to see Tatsumi-kun tomorrow so that there are no further delays. And as for telling Kage about all this, I don't think I could… Not unless it became a problem. The thought of it might scare him, and I'm sure the last thing that little egomaniac needs to know is that he's not in full control of himself."

Mitsuru folded her arms and grinned softly, "… I trust you with him, then. You know your Shadow better than anyone else, so much that you should be able to gauge his moods. But please, stay cautious…"

"I will," Naoto answered, "And I trust you, as well. To let us know when you find anything definitive from our results."

"The moment it happens," Mitsuru promised.


	13. Chapter 13

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

April 18th, 2013, Thursday

Kage remained out of commission for the rest of the day, locked down in an unfaltering sleep. There were only a few times during the night that Naoto noticed him shuffle and turn before they both eased off to sleep again. She assumed there was no reason to worry… His breathing was fine and he lacked any fever or discomfort, so chances were high that he was simply tired. By the time morning rolled around, thankfully, everything returned back to normal. Well, at least as normal as the situation could get. What awoke Naoto that morning was hardly routine.

"CROSS CHANGER. GO! WING GAUNTLET!" shouted out a voice in an ear-wrenching multi-pitch, which startled Naoto into an upright position in her bed, eyes wide. The only thing she was quick enough to see was Kage, arms spread out like an eagle in flight, launching himself towards her. He cawed once more before landing, "Hii~~yaa!"

Naoto yelled and put her hands up to her face, catching one of Kage's shoulders in the impact. The landing knocked some air out of her, but the mattress softened the blow. "Wwwwhyyy?" she murmured out against his side, trying to push him off. It was then that she noticed a nostalgic tune playing from the TV across the room.

_Fea~ther, fea~ther, feathermaaan~_

Just that tune alone cleared up the situation immediately. "… Never mind, I see," Naoto sighed, letting the little Shadow roll off of the bed on his own, leaving a trail of giggles in his wake.

He quickly crawled back towards the TV, sitting on the floor before it as if it were the pinnacle of all things holy and amazing. That wonderful tune… those colourful characters… and at least 500% of one's daily percent of explosions… It didn't matter who you were, Phoenix Ranger Featherman R was the apex of awesomeness. As Kage looked over his shoulder, he noticed that his host was also fixated on the show with a very faint smirk hitting the corner of her mouth.

Kage grinned with delight, "Beeeeaak~"

"… Smashers…" Naoto responded in a timid, quiet voice, looking off to the side. How did she even remember something like that…? When she looked back towards the TV, she instead got a face-full of Kage, staring so closely that their noses were almost touching.

"BEEEAK!?" he tried again.

Naoto leaned back with surprise, "… S-smashers…!"

Kage smiled faintly and pulled away, sitting back down on the floor before her. "… You don't watch these kinds of shows as much as you used to," he spoke.

"I grew out of it…" she answered with a light shrug, "It's a children's show."

"How do you grow out of 'fun'…? I don't understand why children get to have all the best entertainment…" Kage frowned a bit, "… and that adults can't enjoy it too."

Naoto stared up at the TV screen and burrowed herself into a thought that she'd had many times before. It was… exactly as Kage was saying. "You're right… I don't understand why that is."

"Hmm," Kage replied shortly, showing some contentment with her answer.

Getting herself out of bed, Naoto put her school uniform together and changed while Kage was preoccupied with the TV. All the while she could hear the voices and cheesy sound effects from the show that left her with deep feelings of nostalgia. She hadn't watched Phoenix Ranger Featherman R since she was a very young child. Still, it was her guilty pleasure. And while it was hard to admit that the show still entertained her, Kage made her true feelings pretty obvious. With some time to spare, she sat down next to the Shadow and gave in to her inner child, eager to see how much of the show she really remembered.

"So…" she looked to him during a commercial break, "You're feeling better today?"

"Oh, uh… yeah," Kage answered, looking down and rubbing the back of his head.

Naoto nodded, "I'm sorry if you felt pressured at all by Mitsuru yesterday… or myself," she spoke, "I think you're fine the way you are. Or whatever it is that you feel the most comfortable as."

"The most comfortable…? Hn…" his eyes remained fixed on the TV, though he wasn't paying as much attention to it as one would think. Rather, his mind had wandered in thought. He couldn't say that he was particularly comfortable. This would be his first day of going without food, and even he couldn't predict what the outcome of that would be. He just had to hope that, maybe, the internet would give him a little leeway today…? No, it probably wouldn't. Clenching his eyes shut for a moment, Kage rattled around for a different conversation topic, "Yeah, well… You're seeing Kanji-kun today, right?"

"Yes, I am," she answered, eyeing the phone on the desk, "I messaged him about it yesterday while you were asleep. I do hope that he doesn't have a problem with needles… Anyways, I will see you again before I leave, so don't get yourself into too much trouble."

Kage rolled back onto the floor innocently, "I wooon't." Was she reading his mind or something? It wasn't like he was planning on chewing off anyone's arm today… Seriously. At least he had finally found a few shows that amused him. That would suffice in keeping his mind occupied.

As Naoto left, she requested that her Grandpa check up on Kage every once in a while. There were a number of things about Kage that unnerved her, but only recently did she start to feel that her amount of control over him was wavering. It was an inner paranoia… that perhaps all the delays and lack of progress in the case would soon turn around and result in something regrettable.

* * *

Kanji couldn't leave for school just yet. Not with such an extreme moral dilemma stewing around in his mind. Slumped down on the living room couch, he eyed over the text message he had gotten the day before from a certain Shirogane. She said something about them needing to see each other today… without any direct context. They planned to meet once again at that coffee shop. The same coffee shop where he had informed her of his mother's passing, and where she had developed a case of surreal hallucinations that likely lead up to Kage's appearance in this world. Of course, nothing in that message would have bothered him, save for the additional few lines of text at the end stating that 'we won't stay there for long, though. I would like to go somewhere more quiet.' … And of course, Kanji was equally dense enough to believe that such a statement might have meant something else. He completely forgot the fact that Naoto didn't have the most exceptional social skills, and would occasionally say things that could be skewed into some sort of innuendo without her even knowing it. Hey, it happened sometimes. What Kanji had to wonder now was… did she actually mean it as something else? Logic told him… 'no'. She was a detective, a person very talented in lurking behind the scenes and controlling the passage of hush-hush information. This was probably one of those cases. Though, just as he was about to end his wishful thinking and head out to school, another mass plopped down onto the couch next to him and caught a quick glance at Kanji's phone before he could hide it away.

"Hey heeyy~ Talkin' to your girlfriend?" Daichi exclaimed, having only caught the name and nothing more.

"What…!? Where the hell did'ja get that idea?" Kanji grit his teeth in his usual defensive way, "She ain't my girlfriend…"

"Mmhm… Just like how her weird little brother wasn't climbing all over you…" he laughed softly, "Seriously, dude… It's painfully obvious."

"It isn't!"

"No? You get all tense when she's around."

Kanji exhaled deeply and looked away, "It's… just been ages since I've seen her. Well, an age, I guess… I keep thinkin' she's going to say something like 'Oh, you've changed' in some disappointed tone. I guess I've kind of relaxed… compared to how I used to be."

"You were a rowdy little prick as a kid. Still kinda are… But what? You think she preferred you like that?" Daichi questioned, "For some reason… I doubt that."

"Nah, it's not that… It's more like, I was able to say things louder… back then," Kanji said.

"Ah…" Daichi replied as he leaned back into the sofa and spread his arms out against the backing, "So be square with me, then. Do you like her or not?"

Kanji bit his lower lip shut and refused to look back at his cousin, eyes closed, "…"

"You can just say yes… I mean, if you're not going to say 'no' this time, then…"

"Aright, I do…" Kanji muttered in a low voice.

"Heh," Daichi crossed his arms, "See? That wasn't so hard… Though, the difficult part is going to be in telling her."

"That's the thing… How do you go telling someone you suddenly like them even though you've known them for years…? It's like… 'why do you like me now?' It just sounds damn weird…" Kanji spoke with a hand rested over his forehead.

"But how long have you actually liked her for?"

"… Years."

Daichi gave off a quick laugh, "Then what the hell, dude? You didn't just 'suddenly' like her. You just never had the balls to say it. It's not awkward at all, except that you've been hiding it all this time," as he spoke, he lay a hand on Kanji's back and delivered a few man-pats, "Trust me… the longer you put it off, the harder the rejection hits you. And if you find out that she actually does like you… then how many years did you waste not spending time with her? Just do it, get it over with…"

Rejection… That was something Kanji was quite familiar with. In fact, it was the very same theme that his Shadow Self chose to haunt him with so long ago. Dressed in nothing more than a simple bathhouse loincloth, the flamboyant creature screamed for acceptance in a world that might have judged him for his interests and indecision about his sexuality. His homosexual mannerisms caused Kanji to have misled perceptions of himself, when the real problem he was facing was nothing more than having to deal with rejection. No… not everyone is going to agree with your interests. Yes… plenty of people will make judgments about you every day without you even noticing. That was one of the harsh realities of society that had turned Kanji into the aggressive, loud teenager that he once was. In the end, it didn't matter how he acted, what he did, or who he fell in love with. All that mattered was that he could accept all those little things that made him into Kanji Tatsumi. And if someone didn't like it? Well, they could just go and get bent, couldn't they?

Kanji's eyes passed over his phone one more time, still avoiding contact with Daichi's "… I'm seeing her today."

"Well, there you go," he answered, "You can tell her today. Or if you really can't, then you could at least try to make this into something like a date. Y'never know… Maybe she'll be the first one to speak."

Kanji gulped deeply. Kage had said something along those lines… Something about Naoto not yet realizing her feelings for him. It didn't help that her Shadow had practically molested him. That was, by far, a little too much expression. No… Kage was definitely running on his own wavelength that night. Shaking his head, Kanji tried to clear himself of distractions, "Alright, a date… So I should… take her somewhere, or something?"

"Sounds good. Like a movie or dinner, or something like that…" Daichi thought, and then snapped his fingers, "Oh! And every now and then, look into her eyes. If she looks back at you and asks 'what?', then chances are slim… But if she gets all shy and looks away, then she's totally crushing on you, dude."

Kanji kept a straight face. Did Daichi even know who he was talking about? Naoto wasn't the kind of person to get all bubbly and silly over someone looking at her. She would definitely ask why he was staring at her, and then he'd have to come up with some sort of excuse. No, that didn't sound like a very good idea… "I'll see how it goes… At least I can actually hold conversations with her now. Ugh… I was a complete wreck two years ago."

Daichi smirked, "You just need to chill out… Look, I'll get you a drive to school. … … 'Cause I sort of realized that you'd be late if you left now…"

Kanji quickly looked up, "Shit!" That's right, all that talking just crept up out of nowhere on him when he was supposed to be on his way to class. Grabbing his things, he agreed to the drive and didn't hold back any of his gratitude. Except for Yu Narukami, Daichi was probably the first guy in a long time that Kanji was actually able to manage some meaningful heart-to-heart conversations with. Perhaps it was just because they were family, but it was better than Yosuke and Teddie's advice, that was for sure… One of them constantly ridiculed him over his in-the-closet moments, and the other one was inhuman and couldn't even understand the concept of 'scoring'.

During the drive to school, Kanji pondered over the various places that he might suggest taking Naoto to. If she had the time, that is… Her decision to meet with him today might have been over some urgent matter, and therefore they might not have much free time. But… it was still worth checking and seeing what sort of movies were playing later tonight. As he scanned over an online list with his phone, Kanji found that a few names stuck out… particularly, a 'Phoenix Ranger Featherman R: From The Ashes'. … That would work, wouldn't it? Unless she was offended by being taken to a kid's movie, but… for some reason, he doubted she'd mind. It was better for bonding than a sappy love movie… that was for sure. With a tint of pink smeared across his cheeks, he typed a reply.

'If there's time, do you want to go see a movie afterwards?'

* * *

The force at which Naoto suddenly re-entered her room after coming home from school shook Kage awake. As exciting as the TV had been, watching it for seven hours straight had put him to sleep in the middle of the floor. At one point, he noticed that a blanket had been placed over him… it was most likely Naoto's Grandpa who had done so. Clinging to said blanket, Kage looked up and watched as Naoto hustled around the room, changing into something more formal and grabbing Kanji's bracelet from the desk. Curious, he lifted a brow at her choice of clothing, "That's fancy."

"Um… yes. Do you think it's a little too much?" she asked, turning towards the Shadow.

"Well, no…" he answered, looking up and down at her, "This is the first I've seen you wear something like that, though. Since you've been dressing more casual lately… Sometimes you don't even change out of your school uniform. What's the occasion?"

Naoto looked away, "It's not an occasion… I just… thought that maybe I should put my good clothing to good use."

"Alright…? But you're just delivering something to Kanji, aren't you?" asked Kage.

"We… might be going to a movie afterwards," Naoto spoke in a very low voice, turning away to empty out the school-related contents of her carrying bag.

Kage quickly crawled up behind her and rested his chin on her shoulder, "A mooo~vie~?" he tittered, "Was that his idea?"

"It was…" she answered, ignoring it as Kage brushed up behind her.

"It's about time, don't you think…?" he smiled, "You've been waiting all this time for him to do something like this… He's making a move, you know?"

She could feel the air of his voice passing through her ear in a most unnerving way, and she looked away again, "I doubt that…" she whispered, "There's nothing fanciful about what we're going to see. It's just a children's movie… - ah," her voice caught in her throat when she realized.

"What movie?" Kage asked with a frown, leaning in close.

She couldn't lie to her Shadow… that was impossible. He'd know if she said anything other than the truth. "It might be… a Featherman movie…?" she admitted.

Kage's eyes and mouth went wide, "Ah…! Can I go too!?" he squealed with excitement.

"You know I can't, Kage…" Naoto shook her head, "This is… I mean-…"

"A date," Kage answered, lowering his arms and lifting himself off her back, "You just won't admit it…"

Naoto zipped up her bag and stared down. What if it was? It was just a date… between friends, to watch a movie that they had common ground on. It would help lighten the mood amongst all the crime and anxiety going on. "After telling him everything… with the Shadow Extractions and haze… I think we'll both deserve the chance to get lost in a movie."

"You haven't even told him yet?" Kage rolled his eyes, "'Hey Kanji, guess what? We might both be DYING.' … That's a great start." Folding his arms together, the little Shadow hobbled over to the bed and lay down in a slump, "Go have fun, then."

Maybe Mitsuru was right... if anyone could gauge Kage's mood, it was Naoto.

… No, anyone could tell that the boy was depressed about being left out. Naoto looked at the pitiful heap with a sympathetic stare, "Hey…"

Kage barely looked up.

"I'll take you to see the movie sometime, alright? Just the two of us."

"Do you promise?"

Naoto smiled and nodded, "I promise."

Kage stared back down at the bed sheets and pulled some up into a pile between his arms, cuddling into them. He remained silent, and simply nodded.

Softly sighing, Naoto grabbed her bag and waved, "Take care, then…"

* * *

Though this was supposed to be a one-on-one meeting with Kanji, it was necessary for Naoto to bring Sousei along. She had no other means of travel, after all. Of course, the motorcycle was willing to stay out of their business, and would likely take another trip to the police station to pass the time. There were many things that Sousei wanted his own confirmation on, and it was possible for Naoto to reach him by phone, so he had no issue at all with leaving the two by themselves.

Driving up to the coffee shop's entrance, they found Kanji waiting just outside the doors. He wasn't sure if they were going to be staying here or immediately going elsewhere, so he didn't bothering grabbing a table. Instead, he stared in awe as Naoto drove up. She was dressed in her favorite plaid pants, topped with a white blouse, blue undershirt and a particularly fetching necklace and a silver bracelet on her arm. Something about her assemblage was quite nostalgic… Of course, it could have just been the pants. Kanji's mind tried to string together a number of different things to start the conversation, but all that passed his lips was a simple, "How's it going?"

"Good," Naoto answered with a light smile.

Sousei spoke up briefly, "Shall I take you anywhere else, or will you two be fine?"

"I think we can walk. Thank you, though," she answered as she dismounted from the bike. In response to that, Sousei visualized his hologram rider and left the scene with a small honk. Alone, Naoto stood before Kanji with her hands folded in front, fingers fidgeting. "Well… I suppose I have a lot to say… But I can't here. Can we move further behind the building? There's a small alleyway and a usually empty parking lot."

"Yeah, uh, wherever you want to go," Kanji answered, ready to follow. The immense amount of tension between them was terribly obvious. And they could feel it. It didn't help that once they realized how nervous the other was, that they started thinking… 'why?' Each started to think that maybe the other person really did have ulterior motives for this meeting, and that only made things worse.

A great deal of relief washed over Kanji when he heard Naoto say that, "This is about the case…" Of course it was… that's all it was. All this time, and nothing else.

"You found something out?" he asked as they hid themselves into the alleyway.

"Well, you see, I've been talking with Mitsuru Kirijo… I'm sure you remember her, since she was the one that gave Sousei to me. Anyways, she enlightened me about a few of the case's… oddities. Particularly the state that Goro Yagi's body was left in after he…" she looked up, "… died."

Kanji's face looked confused and angered. She knew it… Kanji had no idea about Goro's death. This would be a long and difficult explanation, then…

"I see…" she looked down, "I will begin from square one, then… It occurred the very night that we left the hospital. Last Thursday, I believe… So, it was exactly a week ago. Naturally, my initial fear was that the blame would fall on the two of us, since we were the last ones to see him that night. I see now that you had no difficulties, or any contact at all… but I was laid off from the Shadow Extraction case. For 'safety reasons', they claimed. Nothing about his death pinpointed to us, so that was the worse that they could do."

"Laid off…" Kanji sneered, "We had nothing to do with his death…! That's unfair…"

Naoto struggled to hold eye contact with him. Did she have nothing to do with Goro's death…? No… she only wished that she could say that. "Well… It was the remains of Goro's body that caused so much confusion. It was quite abnormal… All that could be found within him were a few shriveled up organs, and the rest of his mass was bloated with some sort of volatile gas. All that we know was that he had been a frequenter of Shadow Extracting, so I started to think… what if that was the cause? Did something so seemingly harmless kill him over time? I worried strongly about it because… we too have come in contact with the phenomenon."

Kanji gulped, holding a fixed stare on her. Their reason for talking in a private space was becoming very clear now.

Naoto continued, "So, I figured that if anyone knew the reason behind such a supernatural death, it might be Mitsuru. And sure enough, she was able to trace the events happening here in Yagokoro to a similar string of actions that took place at their labs decades ago. When Shadows were first pulled from people in order to produce test subjects… the haze that killed Goro was witnessed back then as well. Anyone who had been extracted died within two months. The haze that grew within them was completely untraceable until their death… However, once they discovered how to evoke Personas from the Shadows they pulled, the patients stabilized and there were no further losses. It seemed as though the Personas were capable of suppressing the disease."

Kanji was feeling his hands going clammy from the explanation, "Tell me then… Is that shit in us right now…? Are we going to end up like them?"

Naoto shook her head, "As Mitsuru said… the individuals who stabilized had Personas, so she claims that we'll be fine. But she insisted that we be tested, which is why I've brought you out here today. She said that if any trace of the gas could be found within us, then it can be localized and withdrawn. In order to test us, though…" Naoto stared down at the bracelet around her wrist, lifting it up. "Thanks to Sousei, we had this delivered to us. I have been wearing it for a day now… and so far it has proven itself safe and comfortable. By appearance, it looks like a bracelet. But it is actually a self-diagnosing reader that is capable of transmitting medical information back to Mitsuru. By her requests, she hopes that you'll be able to wear one as well for, at most, two or three days."

"Huh… Looks pretty simple. I wouldn't mind…" he answered, looking the bracelet over.

"As long as you don't mind needles…" Naoto admitted, "As it is technically one that you would have to wear, I suppose much like an intravenous line. If it bothers you, you don't have to… but I could help you with it, to make sure that it goes on easily…"

Kanji sucked on his tongue, "Needles are nothin', go for it," he spoke, holding his arm out.

Naoto gave off a soft laugh, "Then that makes things so much easier. Thank you, Tatsumi-kun," she said, pulling out the swabs and some alcohol that she'd kept handy for sterilization. Cleaning the area on Kanji's wrist, Naoto unclasped the bracelet and fit it to his arm. Figuring he wouldn't feel a thing if he wasn't even sure of how the bracelet worked, Naoto pushed down the round stud and injected the needle. As expected, Kanji didn't even flinch. "And that's all it is…" she spoke, "If you have any issues, it can be removed by separating the sides of the bracelet."

Kanji blinked, "Wait, it's in…?" he stared at his wrist and tilted his head, "… Didn't feel nothin'…"

Naoto smiled, "Same… Everything should be fine, then. And hopefully we'll have some results in a couple of days." Watching him nod in response, Naoto noticed that her hands were still holding onto his wrist. Letting him go, she quickly turned away and coughed into one hand, "W-well… unless you had any other questions, that's all I originally had planned for this evening…"

Kanji rubbed his arm gently, "Originally… But if it's still cool with you, there was that… movie thing. I-I mean, if you're not busy…"

"I'm not," she answered shortly, looking back up at him, "The theater is in walking distance, I hope…? I'm sorry, I shooed Sousei off so quickly… so…"

"No, it's fine. It's not far," he answered, walking her back out from the parking lot and onto the main sidewalk, "I made sure that there was one close by." When they looked down the road, they were able to see a complex of various entertainment and food buildings. Without a doubt, the theater would be found within them.

Naoto nodded, folding her arms behind her back, "Thank you. That was considerate."

"Welcome," he answered.

Their walk was indeed a short one. But the thing that kept crossing Kanji's mind was the fact that Naoto purposely kept her hands so close to herself. Whether or not she was subconsciously doing it, he couldn't help but think that she was intentionally preventing him from holding her hand. Not that he… planned to. He definitely didn't have a repertoire of things to boldly attempt or say to her, in order to motivate some sort of romantic response. None at all!

And neither did she… who, as they walked, listened closely to the sound of Kanji's footsteps next to hers. His added weight made the sound of his treading so much heavier than her dainty little walk. If she was the treble, then he was definitely the bass… The more she focused on it, the more she realized that their feet were starting to step in unison. Now that she was doing it on purpose, she wondered if Kanji would notice… She occasionally stared up at him, but as usual, he was trying his hardest not to look down at her himself… If anything, he was staring away from her. She remembered… he used to act like this all the time.

"Well, there it is," he spoke, leading them up to the theater building and through the entrance. '_Here it goes',_ he thought… Not-actually-existing-repertoire tactic number one… "I don't mind paying for the tickets."

Naoto looked up with a lifted brow, "It's no problem… I brought money. I can pay for my own."

"Hey, I insist. Consider it as thanks for stickin' up for me… since the beginning of this case and everything."

"Then I'll pay for the food," Naoto compromised.

Kanji's shoulders dropped, "But… but the food is like, three times more than the tickets…"

The man at the ticket stand sat with a hand plastered against his forehead. How many times a day did he have to witness this kind of scenario…? Please, a moment of silence for the poor individuals in customer service that have to deal with the likes of modern society.

Naoto turned her gaze down and gripped her hands together behind her, "Alright… If you insist… But we can just share one bag of popcorn, then," she quickly looked back up, "Because it's cheaper, I mean…!"

Kanji couldn't relax. He stood up straight and nodded awkwardly fast, "Oh, yeah! Because it's cheaper. Yeah, that works, I don't mind…" Thank goodness this was a kid's movie or they would have been in shambles. If even one romantic kiss scene could be foreseen, one of them would probably walk right out of the theater.

Once they had their food, they walked to the designated screening room and sat down before the onslaught of shameless advertisements and previews. There were a good number of young children flowing into the room, clinging to their parents and mowing down into their popcorn before the movie even started. At least there was a good chance that if someone sat down in front of them, it would be a short person. Such a thing was… a pretty standard problem for Naoto.

Keeping their gazes fixed on the screen, both Kanji and Naoto were locked in a spell of silence. Even during the occasional awkward moments where their hands bumped into the popcorn bag at the same time, they simply bit their lips and looked away. It was unfortunate that neither of them had the gall to say anything… at all. When the lights finally dimmed down, their presence together was masked by the darkness and they both seemed to relax. Finally, there was something else to focus on…


	14. Chapter 14

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

Small steps carried themselves down the stairway of the Shirogane Estate as the resident Shadow decided to return the blanket he was no longer using back to where it belonged. Though he was trying to be considerate, he didn't actually know where the blanket had come from. So, he followed the hallway into the kitchen where he picked up the faint scent of human-food and the person making it. It was Naoto's Grandpa making himself dinner. In a way, Kage figured that this man was technically his Grandpa, too… but he knew that there would always be a dividing line between himself and Naoto. He was her… but at the same, he was something else. Or perhaps it was because he wasn't all of her, just a small portion that she chose to hide away. Because of that, Kage couldn't really say that Naoto's relatives and friends were his as well. Still, Grandpa had been very accommodating to the small Shadow during his stay.

'_Maybe he just doesn't know… how terrifying and evil I am!' _Kage hissed inside his mind, filling himself with delusions of grandeur and the mental laugh of a half-wit. Tch… Grandpa didn't need to know that. He was an alright man.

Stepping quietly into the kitchen, Kage held up the blanket in front of him, "Uhm… Do you know where this came from?" he asked.

Setting a lid back down on the pot he was using, Grandpa turned around and smiled to the little boy, "Oh, I found you asleep and figured you'd like a blanket," he answered. "I took it from the guest room, but you can just leave it on the couch there."

Blinking at it a few times, Kage simply nodded and stepped over to the couch, placing the blanket down. "Thank you…" he spoke lightly, returning to the kitchen doorway.

"Not a problem… I am simply doing my part," explained Grandpa, "I imagine it can't be too interesting, having to keep yourself cooped up in the house all the time."

My, my… Sympathetic, too. Kage stepped closer into the kitchen, "It's alright… My home in the world I was from wasn't much bigger than this house anyways. So… I'm used to it. And Naoto takes me places sometimes, too," he spoke, staring around the room, "… Your world really is big…"

Grandpa paused as he listened to the creature, half minding his words and half paying attention to the stew he had on the stove. "Hm… would you think so?" he asked. Letting his meal simmer, Grandpa turned and lifted a finger towards the kitchen window, "Take a look out there… into the city on the horizon. Have you seen how many people there are out there?"

"Yes…" Kage answered, walking over to the window and staring outwards. He had seen plenty of people during their drives on the highway and on the way to Kanji's apartment. He had been all the way to Inaba as well, "There are hundreds and hundreds of people."

"In that city alone, there are over 2 million people…"

"2 million…" Kage repeated under his breath. Even with his wild imagination, he couldn't visualize how many people that must have been. If every person living in the city stood outside in one, huge mass… the sight would be staggering. Like a spill of salt and pepper across the land, yet every particle would be a unique, valued, living human being, "I didn't know your world was that big…" he spoke with awe.

"It isn't," Grandpa continued, turning off the stove. Stepping into the living room for a moment, he picked up an atlas from the bookshelf and pulled out a map of the world. "We live on a rather large island. This one here…" he spoke, pointing out Japan on the map, "There are nearly 150 cities on this island. The city that you see outside the window there is just one of them… and that alone holds 2 million people," he explained, seeing Kage's eyes going large with realization. Grandpa's finger trailed across all of the other landmasses on Earth, from the Americas, to Europe, through Africa and Asia… "And everywhere else… on these large continents, there are people living there as well."

"So… how many people are there? Across this whole wide everything?" Kage asked with brightened eyes.

"To date… there are over 7 billion people in the world," he answered, watching as Kage's mouth slowly dropped. Deciding to put the icing on the cake, he closed his eyes and did some quick calculations in his head, "And that would be… about 3500x more people than you see in that city there."

Kage's shoulders fell. He was completely dumbstruck… It was such an amazingly large number… "I've never felt so small…" he whispered, "How can you even go about your day without thinking… if anything you do is actually worth it? To think that you have any sort of importance in all of this alone… It's all a lie here."

"Well… I didn't mean to cause you such existential angst," he laughed softly; "I think the important thing is to see the vastness of the world without fear, but amazement. One's importance is not a lie, either… Every little thing that you do has a chance of affecting something else… which may affect another thing… and so on until you've ultimately changed the future. We all have that power, even if we all seem to flow in the same direction. This world that human kind has built up was by no accident. It is here because many of us acknowledged our importance and strived to make it a better place to live." He smiled softly, noticing that Kage was having a troubling time trying to digest it all. "But you are a Shadow, correct…? You have your own world, and your own kind… Certainly there were times where you had to work together to make things better?"

"We eat each other," Kage answered, blinking.

"O-oh… Do you…?" Grandpa answered, closing the atlas and returning it to its spot in the bookshelf, "But you live somewhere, right? A home that, perhaps, you built together?"

"Our world is formed by human thoughts… Everything is already set in motion for us. We just… exist there… No purpose, no reason, no importance. We probably didn't even require conscious thought. Maybe we were given it as some sort of cruel joke… because we never talk to each other. We never 'make friends', or 'love one another'. We feel two things, hunger and hatred. When we feel hungry, we hate it… and when we hate something, we get hungry for it. Consumption is the only thing that makes us feel better, and the only time we gather is to fight over the arms and legs of our victims. The fattest of us are at 'peace', as you call it… and the smallest are their meals."

Grandpa sat in silence, gaze falling.

"They say that every human has a Shadow. And yes, at one point you might have too… But at your age, your Shadow is either living now as one of the fattest, most vicious cannibals… or it was weak and got picked off long, long ago," Kage spoke lowly, "You're a good man… So don't resent me when I say that your Shadow probably didn't have the aggressive nature required to survive. In fact, I may have scraped it out between my own teeth at one point."

"From all that…" Grandpa spoke, trying not to sound unsettled, "I can understand why you'd be surprised by the size of our world. Yours must be so small…"

"There may be, at most… a hundred thousand of us. However, that is significantly smaller than your figure of 7 billion. I suppose this is what happens in a world where the survival of your species depends not on procreation… but by another species entirely. As long as you exist, we will, too…" Kage spoke. Not that he had any sort of difficulty when it came to consuming humans. If anything, his killing of Goro sounded like nothing now when you considered how many more humans there were in the world. "Now you see why, sometimes, living simply for yourself is easier. For me, your ideals mean nothing. It wouldn't make any bit of difference in my world if I lived your way. We just… can't do it there…"

"You know? You're like the grandson I never had…"

Kage looked up at those words.

"I imagine he would have been headstrong, just like you…" Grandpa continued.

In the midst of Kage's shocked silence, Grandpa took the chance to finally grab two bowls and put his well-simmered dinner together for both himself and the boy. Sitting down at the dining table, he motioned towards the opposite seat, offering it for Kage. The Shadow narrowed his eyes as he sat down, "… No. Don't pull the family card on me."

"I'm not. I'm just saying what I think," Grandpa spoke, taking a few spoonfuls of stew.

Kage's fingernails dug into the legs of his pants as he, for some reason, sat uncomfortably. He didn't know why… "… I hate you."

"No you don't," he answered, "You just didn't enjoy that conversation."

Kage pursed his lips together, "I'm nothing like you," he spoke quietly, "I'm nothing like Kanji-kun, or Naoto, or Wheels, or anyone I met in that other city… And also, family never separates…" he looked away, "… I won't be here forever. Everyone knows that I'm not supposed to be in your world."

"Hm… And who is everyone? Did anyone ever say that you weren't welcome here, or did you just make that up yourself?" Grandpa asked.

Kage began to realize that this man probably didn't know about the… requirements… that a Shadow needed in order to live on this side. The stew sitting in front of Kage was proof of that. He had tried with the shampoo… but he obviously couldn't figure out what was supposed to be food and what wasn't. And even if he was taught, the slop here did nothing for him. Kage closed his eyes and sighed, "I'll never be anything more than a part of Naoto. There's no point in treating me like a different person… Plus, if you so desperately wanted a grandson, then maybe you should tell Naoto that. I'm sure she would enjoy hearing about how 'unexpected' her gender was."

Grandpa could sense an inner complex being revealed… Kage's assumption that this had been about Naoto's gender made that quite obvious. Grandpa set his spoon down, "Yes… we were expecting a boy."

"Disgusting…" Kage huffed.

"And we knew it was a boy already. Or at least, most likely to be so… Naoto's mother was still in the first trimester when the car accident happened," he spoke, eyes staring directly into Kage's.

The Shadow… made no noise. For a moment, he didn't even seem to breathe.

Grandpa continued, "It was a short-lived expectancy… All of this was discovered while Naoto's mother was in the hospital being treated for her wounds. She was in intensive care for three days and her condition was difficult to stabilize. I think the only thing that pulled her through was the thought that… at long last… she would be able to provide her daughter with a sibling, a companion…" he spoke, "None of us could foresee what happened when Naoto was finally admitted time to see her mother. In that room, holding her daughter close, she passed away without rhyme or reason. At times… I thought… that maybe she knew that her time was up. We were all so uplifted by her pregnancy that we lied to ourselves and expected everything to be alright. But… she must have known, that Death was simply waiting for her to say goodbye to her daughter."

Kage stared expressionlessly at the man in front of him, a loss of feeling in his voice, "… You never told her this. Why…?"

Grandpa closed his eyes, "She was young… The death of her parents was already a heavy blow on her heart; something I'm sure you'd know about quite well. Her parents asked her how she'd feel about having another baby around the house, and I suppose that confused her somewhat when one never came. Even as she aged and occasionally asked about it… all I could tell her was that 'they tried'. Would it change the past if I told her about it? No…"

Kage spoke quietly, feeling a trace of liquid forming in his eyes, "Wouldn't change anything…!? The thought tortured her… She wanted so desperately to have someone by her side that understood what it was like to lose one's parents. The ability to give up and let go of something… It was so difficult…"

"Someone to be there for her… That was something we wanted for her as well. I understand that she had a very lonely childhood, but through it, she found company within herself. And now… we have you here."

Kage shook his head, "Again… I am not an individual. Nor can I replace one."

"But you now know something that Naoto does not…" Grandpa mentioned, "By being here, you've developed different memories from hers… Why wouldn't you be considered someone else?"

"But who am I, then?" Kage slumped into his chair, feeling defeated.

Grandpa smiled, "My grandson…"

The small tears that formed in Kage's eyes were now trickling down his cheeks. This wasn't an unusual state for him… He cried all the time. But this cry felt very different from all the others. It wasn't out of spite for Naoto's suppressed emotions… It was happening because he had his own feelings… When did they begin to form? The more he dripped tears down into the stew below him, the more he realized how long they had been there. Feelings… reflections… desires… All of which belonged to him. "I love you…" Kage choked on his words between sobs, "I love you, Grandpa…"

* * *

As they stepped out of the theater, Naoto and Kanji realized that the sun had set long ago. For a kid's movie, the film had been delightfully long. There wasn't a single point in the movie that wasn't filled with either suspense, action, explosions or amazingly skin-tight superhero outfits. Sometimes, if you were lucky enough, you got all four of those at once. Moments like that had Naoto on the edge of her seat, and she had completely forgotten all the previous anxiety she had felt before the movie had started. However, now that it was over, the two of them had to face reality again. The reality that it was now night time, they had just finished watching a movie together, that neither of them had any other plans… and that things would probably get terribly awkward again. Lights… camera… action.

"S-so…" Kanji decided to break the silence, "Do you have a favorite Featherman?"

"Well… somewhat. In truth, I like them all. But, even though it's a completely senseless bias, I like Blue Swan the most simply because… she's blue," Naoto admitted, holding back the redness in her cheeks, "It's not because she's the richest or the lead female… In fact, none of that really appeals to me. I simply like her for her colour."

Kanji emitted a quick laugh, "You too, huh? Yeah, I like Black Condor just cause he's such a badass, and it seems like he's into everything that I'm into now. And I can't say that I'm not a fan of black… I mean, I obviously am."

"I see… Black Condor…" Naoto put a hand to her chin, "You remember what happened to him in the original show, though… right?"

"Yeah… they killed him off. It was total balls…" Kanji spoke with a sigh. Thankfully the movie they had just watched did its best to ignore that fact.

"Yes… he died during the reception of Blue Swan and Red Hawk's wedding… As if, in the midst of it all, he realized that he would have to give up his pursuit of her. But in doing so, the show made it look as if he couldn't live without her," Naoto mentioned, looking up at Kanji, "It was sad…"

His first instinct was to look away from her, like he always did… Always avoiding that gaze… But he didn't this time. He managed to bare the eye contact and nodded, "I guess… I d'unno though, they were kind of mismatched anyways. She was probably happier with Red Hawk…" he spoke lightly, "… What do you think?"

Naoto looked forwards, "… I wish she had been with Black Condor."

Kanji felt his heart skip a beat and then return at full force with a few noticeable thumps, cheeks reddening. But why? These were just movie afterthoughts. About a good, fun, relatable show… "Y-yeah… if they made it work out. They probably could have…"

Naoto nodded, "Differences shouldn't matter…"

Waiting to see if the conversation would be pushed any further than that, both Kanji and Naoto stood at the curb of the street and stared out towards the sparkling car lights in the distance. Naoto hugged her arms together around her front and tilted her head down, feeling a cool mid-April breeze creeping up on her thin frame. Feeling a little shaky, she reached down into her pocket and pulled out her phone, "I… I should call Sousei… It's getting late."

Looking down at her, Kanji noticed her shivering arms, "You cold?" he asked. Though, Naoto was preoccupied with pulling up Sousei's contact number and didn't give a verbal response, it was obvious that her rarely-worn blouse was proving to be a little too thin for an evening like this. Kanji exhaled a little huff and pulled one of his arms out of his coat, draping the other half of it across Naoto's shoulders, sharing it with her.

As expected, Naoto quickly looked up at him, but he was still staring off into the street. She could see it in his lack of expression, though. It was a very nonchalant 'don't worry about it'. There was no reason to reject his courtesy… and no doubt that this was much warmer. "Thank you, Tatsumi-kun…" Naoto whispered before hitting the call button. It was answered instantaneously, and all Naoto had to say was a quick, "We would like to be picked up now" before hanging up and putting her phone away.

Kanji blinked, "That was fast… How does he even know where we are?"

"GPS…" she answered shortly, which prompted a dry 'ah' from Kanji.

Again, they stood in silence. If Sousei had taken a trip to the police station as planned, he would most likely arrive to the theater in about fifteen minutes. Naoto held onto the edge of Kanji's coat with one hand and cuddled the rest of herself into it, appreciating the added warmth she felt on one side. In all this comfort, Naoto felt her mind wander with thoughts about the movie… about the case… about Kanji… Her eyes lid with contemplation.

"Tatsumi-kun…" she spoke, "You said something… You said that you and Black Condor have a lot in common…"

"Yeah… same interests and stuff…" Kanji answered, feeling his heart thump again. It happened every time she spoke now, and part of him wished that they would just stand there in silence so that it would stop happening. … But another part wished that it would happen more.

"His main interest… was a woman, the Blue Swan," she mentioned, hiding inside his coat.

Kanji didn't know what to say to that… and Naoto didn't know how to follow up on it. What was she thinking, bringing it up? It was more of a fact than a question…

The silence persisted, until they both came to a conclusion and turned to each other and uttered at the same time, "Do you-" "We might-"

Quickly looking away, Kanji coughed into his hand, "Uh… you first."

Naoto bit her lip. It had taken an immeasurable amount of courage just to ask it the first time, and that had resulted in failure. She tried again, speaking quietly, "Do you… have an interest in someone?" Within his coat, Naoto could feel every muscle in Kanji's body suddenly tense up.

"S-someone… I-…. I…." he panicked. She was asking it…. She was actually asking it, and he didn't even know what to say. The last thing any noble guy would do was throw the spotlight back onto the other person, but unfortunately, that was Kanji's plan, "W… Why are you asking?"

"Well… It's… it's just that I haven't seen you or anyone from Inaba in almost a year… Within a time span such as that, something important might have happened," she excused smoothly, "Sometimes I get the feeling that… you might be missing someone from back there…"

Thump thump…

"I did…" Kanji answered, "I did miss someone…"

Naoto looked up, her fingers holding tightly to the hem of Kanji's coat, "… Who?"

Kanji gulped deeply and didn't say a word. Instead, he stared downwards and let his free hand drift until it found hers, clenched and nervous where he couldn't see it. With his larger hand cupped over hers, he held onto it warmly until he felt her fingers spread, allowing them to interlock with his. Hearing the chime of their bracelets hitting, the two made a passing glance at each other, which resulted in a soft, relaxed laugh between them. That was all the answer that she needed…

Naoto's fingertips felt the back of his hand as she spoke, "… And what were you going to say…?"

Kanji's face went red at that question, "Euh… Actually, I was going to say… that we might not be all that different from Swan and Condor ourselves…" he admitted, eyes squinting. "It's just… all those times, back when we were freshmen at Inaba… you thought I was avoiding you because I didn't want you as a friend. But that was because I… I just didn't want to say… it…" He took a deep breath before continuing, "Being around you made my head spin… In fact, it still does… I kept tellin' myself that it was just a phase that I'd get over. And I heard you say it once… that anyone who claimed to love you before getting to know you was ridiculous…" he looked down at her again, "So I stayed away… Figured maybe my thoughts would change once I got to actually know you. But, no… If anything, it just got worse… I mean- better. Definitely better… But I never had the guts to say it."

"You…" she held onto his hand tighter.

"I… like you, Naoto…" he managed to speak, barely. He shook his head, feeling the need to rephrase it, "That is, I could… if allowed… love you."

Naoto's breathing grew heavy as she tried to think of a reply, "That's-… Oh dear… I… I don't know what to say…" He had been right… All this time, that little bugger of a Shadow had been spot on. Naoto couldn't find a reason to reject Kanji's feelings… Even more, she was actually starting to feel her own. Something like this had never crossed her mind, but the moment it did… when Kanji admitted everything to her… suddenly everything made sense. "Though this feels so sudden… I'm actually… quite happy to hear you say that," Naoto's voice was so small that it could have been drowned out by a single breeze. But Kanji heard every word. "I wouldn't mind, perhaps… spending more time like this…" underneath the street light, her face was turning a deep shade of coral, "… and allowing you to feel however you've wanted to."

Kanji's mouth lifted an uncontrolled smirk. She… accepted… Quite lightly spoken, mind you, but it was a start. "You got school tomorrow?" he asked.

"I do, but… I have the weekend free. We may hear from Mitsuru by that time anyways," Naoto answered, looking up with expectant eyes.

"The weekend it is…"

Now, with hands held, they stood warmly under the coat and leaned against each other's side, wondering how all of this would play out… It was a first for both of them, and it would probably take quite a bit of time before either of them admitted to terms such as 'boyfriend, girlfriend, or dating'. This was just… doing what felt right. It didn't have to be called by anything in particular, as long as they had each other's company and knew it was something special.

As Sousei's engine echoed in the distance, Kanji offered his full coat for Naoto to wear during the drive back home. Then, when they parted ways at Kanji's apartment, neither of them could last for more than a minute before an overwhelming sense of joy left a smile on both of their faces for the rest of the night…

April 19th, 2013, Friday

… And… somewhat into the next day, the same smile remained on Naoto's features. Even if she wasn't smiling, there was an upbeat glow in her eyes that made it seem like Naoto had gotten at least twelve hours of sleep the night before. She was attentive all class and quick to answer questions, never allowing herself to get caught off guard. She had an amazing amount of focus for someone whose mind should have been filled with thoughts of someone else, but this was simply how Naoto handled such situations. For her, the entire day passed as if it had only been a few minutes, and when she started packing up her things to go home, she did so in a matter of seconds. Getting up to leave, Naoto suddenly felt a grip on her arm's sleeve and she was tugged back slightly.

"Alright, alright… I think it's time you spoke up, Ms. Shirogane," said a familiar voice.

Naoto quickly turned around and saw Touko, who let go of her arm and stared with a confused expression. Naoto bit her lower lip, "Yes, Touko?" It wasn't very often when her best friend decided to call her by her last name. It was usually done so in a joking fashion, but Touko sounded completely serious this time.

"Look… This isn't really about today in particular, although you seem livelier right now than usual. I won't ask why that is…" Touko spoke, "But I want to talk about why you've been missing from the station for the past few days. Sousei is still showing up regularly, but you…? You don't talk to me so much anymore, either…"

"I'm sorry… I've just been…" Naoto caught the word in her mouth before she could say it. 'Busy'? As far as Touko was aware, Naoto wasn't busy at all. She fought for a quick replacement word, "… Distracted."

"By what?" Touko questioned further.

Did she really have to ask? Naoto played a card that she hoped Touko wouldn't wriggle her nose into, "… Just… family problems. It's getting sorted out, though."

Touko paused with her arms folded, but as Naoto expected, she didn't butt in on what sounded like private business, "… Look, Tsuge isn't mad or anything. He won't chew off your face if you step in for just one evening…" she spoke, leaning in close, "Plus… I really wish I could get your help on something…" After saying that, she nudged her head to one side and signaled that now would be a good time to leave the classroom.

Naoto was quick to follow her when she made her leave. "Help? I can't say I'm all that caught up on the news… or with whatever else I've missed at the station."

"Does Sousei not talk to you?" Touko asked as they reached their favorite spot behind the school.

Naoto shook her head, "About anything important recently…? No."

Touko sucked on her tongue, "Well, he certainly runs his mouth while he's at work… He's interrogated nearly every detective and officer in the station about Tsuge's recent activity. Sousei insists that there's something odd about his handling of the Shadow Extraction case… Or at least, ever since you were laid off."

"Tsuge switched methods?" Naoto blinked.

"He switched up his team entirely… to one person he practically hired off the streets. He swears that's all he needs, yet we've heard no progress, they've stopped interrogating, and above all… it sounds like they've been talking about a completely different issue," Touko frowned, "I think he just wants to see the Extraction case over and done with. Swept under the carpet like it was nothing… And I want to believe that too, since the activity leaves no evidence of its doing. It's purely psychological… so it may as well be fake. But what I saw with you last week after school…? That wasn't fake. And I want to know what that was…"

Naoto's pupil's shrunk. Touko… remembered all that? Naoto hoped that her friend's silence about it was a sign that she had forgotten about it. Or perhaps she thought it was a dream. But not only did she remember it, Touko was convinced that every bit of it was real. "… I don't know what you're talking about…" Naoto clenched her hands nervously.

"That sounds pretty cliché, Naoto-kun," Touko frowned, "You remember them, I know you do. Those large creatures and the one that attacked the boy that pulled it from you? You can't say that you don't know… In fact, there was something odd about that whole scene that bugged me for the longest time. Out of everyone in the forest that day… you were the only one who didn't step back in fear. The way you registered the situation… your first question wouldn't have been 'What is that?' … it would have been 'How did that get here?'" she spoke lightly, "And then… one of those creatures was extracted from you, and what did you do…? You smiled. You looked up at that terrible thing… and you knew exactly what you were looking at."

"You're dropping assumptions on me," Naoto answered flatly; "I thought we were talking about Tsuge?"

Touko stared intently at her friend and had a hard time backing off from her train of questioning. "Yes… we were…"

Naoto shook her head, "I'm sorry, but I was just as confused as you were… The smile you witnessed was likely from my mental stupor at the time. If I must remind you, the feeling of the extraction was blissful and draining, so I had very little control of my conscious self. As for my lack of fear… I suppose I'm just that experienced in hiding things."

"Yes… you are…" Touko mimicked her last sentence, staring hard into her friend's eyes.

Feeling uneasy again, Naoto coughed lightly and redirected the conversation, "So… you said that Tsuge was discussing unrelated issues with his ace on the Extraction case?"

"That's what Sousei said. No one else heard it," Touko sighed as she explained, "Something about corporate blackmail? They were discussing the revival of MyPlace, as if Tsuge knew what had gone wrong. After hearing it, Sousei got all caught up in the thought that… maybe… Tsuge was the one that fixed their website." She quickly shrugged, "See? Nothing relevant. In other words, they're just wasting time."

Naoto smirked lightly, "You're so intrigued by it… I'm surprised they didn't put you on the case instead."

"Well… something has to be done about it. If not from a criminal perspective, than at least from an analyzed, scientific perspective. 'Cause obviously nothing is stopping people from doing it…" Touko frowned.

Naoto stood up straight, "Who's doing what? Shadow Extracting?"

"Well, almost everyone in the school knows about it by now, y'know…? I've seen the signs and the secretive gestures people are making… I would be quite surprised if it wasn't going on still."

Naoto averted her troubled expression away from Touko. Almost the entire school…? How fast could something like that spread? By word of mouth, sure… but physically it could only be done by someone who had experienced it first. That odd student from last week had awakened, at most, two or three people… but would that alone be enough to cause an epidemic within the whole school? And with no one else being truly awakened to their Persona, all their lives could be at risk. Naoto knew that her first order of business before getting home would be to confront Sousei about everything he had heard, as well as give him a few stern words about not telling her sooner. Touko was right about one thing… If only she and Sousei continued their interest in the Shadow Extraction case, then all care for it would be thrown out the window within the week. Until gas-filled flies started dropping, of course…

"It just had to be a Friday, didn't it…?" Naoto winced, "I suppose I'll be seeing you again on Monday, and on that day we need to compile a list of everyone who's come in contact with the Shadow Extractions. Whether they've heard about it or had it done to them… We need to cover as much of the school as possible."

"And how is that going to help?"

"I need to know the expanse of our problem…" Naoto tilted her head down, "But for now, Sousei has some talking to do."


	15. Chapter 15 - P

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

Naoto decided that her best chance to talk to Sousei alone about the issue was going to be during their drive home from school. He wouldn't be able to avoid the question easily at that point. However, Naoto figured that she would reserve the conversation until they got off from the highway so that she wouldn't be shouting obnoxiously over the blasts of winds. The moment they entered the quiet peace of the estate's residential area, she leaned down close to his handlebars and grabbed his attention.

"Sousei, there are a number of things I need to talk to you about before we reach the house…" she spoke over his putting motor.

"Yes, Shirogane-san?" he answered from his speakers.

"I was talking with Aoi-san after school today… Well, more like she pulled me into the conversation out of concern," Naoto explained, "She said that your behavior at the station lately has been causing a bit of controversy. That you apparently overheard Tsuge discussing something rather… offbeat with one of his employees."

Nothing more than his engine continued to make noise in response. Sousei decided to take control of his wheels and led the two of them off the road towards an empty plot of land. Once they were out of any possible onlooker's sight, he shut off his engine as a signal for Naoto to get off. Then, free of his owner, Sousei reverted back to his human-shaped form and glanced left and right before directing his attention back to her. "I'm sorry… I wanted to confirm whether or not this was an issue before telling you… since I'm aware that you've already got your plate full with other problems," he whispered.

"Problems that aren't potentially related to what you heard?" she asked, "I would like to make that judgment for myself rather than have a third party tell me 'it's nothing.'"

"I suppose… If it would be of any help then, have a recording of their conversation from my memory. It's cryptic, and possibly unrelated, but their choice of words left me with a bothered feeling," he explained as he accessed the recording. Naoto stood next to him with her arms folded behind her while she listened to the conversation, plucking out any questionable sentences.

… _We have the technology to keep it stabilized and from what you should already know, it's doing the global e-business a great deal…_

… _You say you have the cure, but you can't reveal what it is…_

… _To reveal to them the cause of their problem would create a panic… Our company is standing on thin ice and you know that…_

When the transmission stopped, Naoto closed her eyes and pondered. There was indeed something… very wrong… about this little conference. "Though I don't want to distract myself from the mystery at hand, I must say first… that I'm disappointed in you for not telling me about this sooner, Sousei," Naoto disciplined, "From now on, you will always keep me informed immediately. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly clear," Sousei slumped, "… So you think that this is important?"

"Entirely vital…" she answered, hand raised to her chin, "I think you've been blind to the actual issue this whole time. Tell me, what do you think is so unnerving about this conversation?"

"That it sounds as if Tsuge is making hush money from a number of social network websites," Sousei answered. Looking down at her, he noticed that the little lady next to him was giving a taunting thumbs-down gesture. Sousei frowned, "Then what?"

"This man that Tsuge hired… Aoi-san described him as someone 'off the streets.' Not literally, per say, but someone that has no relation to our offices and is therefore a complete stranger to us. Indeed, I don't even know his name. Do you?" Naoto questioned.

"I've heard the name Isamu going around, but with no surname, I cannot verify whether or not that is his true name," Sousei answered.

Naoto nodded, "We will go with Isamu for the purpose of this explanation, then… What I find the most inconsistent is the idea that he's some sort of nobody. A stranger to us… Yet he's definitely no stranger to Tsuge. You heard him say that yourself, don't you remember?" she asked, "That 'our company is standing on thin ice and you know that'? He knows, does he…? It's odd for Tsuge to talk about such financial issues with a complete stranger… let alone ones that I don't even know about."

"What financial issues, indeed?" Sousei pushed on.

"We have none, nor are we connected to any other station that does. Though Tsuge spoke about us being an 'annex group'… to what? None of this fits the description of our company and you should have realized why sooner," Naoto stared hard at Sousei.

Sousei felt the pressure and curled away to one side meekly, "Then… he's… describing something else…?"

"There you go," Naoto smiled, which caused Sousei to buckle from relief. He didn't want to imagine what she'd think if he got the wrong answer. Naoto continued, "Isamu and Tsuge are working for another company, likely one that isn't related to us, yet essential in solving our recent crimes. Why else would he hire someone specifically from this place? I can't come to a direct conclusion about what this company is… but Tsuge said enough to make me believe that this is related to the Shadow Extraction case somehow."

"How? Everything was so vague," Sousei contested.

"Then you simply need to listen closer. We know that MyPlace had an issue with its server that involved deleted information and wiped out backups. No one could cause such an anomaly without hacking into the backups at the source, and given the amount of data that was lost and retrieved, one would require a super computer to do it all. MyPlace is no small company… It likely has multiple data centers throughout the world. So, Tsuge must have access to some pretty heavy technology to hold that much information," Naoto crossed her arms, "And despite all that… he claims that he had no part in the hacking. He got this information some other way… perhaps by accident. Perhaps someone else gave it to him… or it fell into his care."

"Someone outside of his company?" Sousei asked.

Naoto shook her head, "More than that… Someone that Tsuge wanted no one else to find out. He fired me and confined all further information to his own personal company. Perhaps… he feared that if I solved the Shadow Extraction case, that it would all lead back to him and whatever he's doing behind our backs."

"You're suspecting Tsuge, then? Someone working within the same police force as you? ... That's rather usual," Sousei commented.

"Not unusual… In fact, something of this nature happened once to me before, and ever since, I've learned to think outside the box in terms of possible suspects," Naoto spoke, reminiscing about a certain Toru Adachi. "It would allow him to cover up his traces and monitor the flow of information."

"Well… You can suspect him all you want, but unless you can make a clear connection between the MyPlace hackings and your Shadow Extraction case, then the only evidence you have his 'suspicious behavior.' And that won't fly…"

Naoto closed her eyes again, "I believe that our connection lies in the person that Tsuge got the MyPlace data information from. Someone who's name and identity has been covered up by the news station, the hospitals… and Tsuge himself. Someone that he believes cannot be subjected to the public eye or else it would cause a panic. Someone that would have to be 'stabilized', as he said…"

"I can only think of one person…" Sousei said as he bit down on his lip.

Naoto nodded in reply, "I suspect that Tsuge is hiding Kon… and that Kon helped him fix the MyPlace issue."

The only remaining question was how this anonymous high school student managed to acquire such valuable information. He must have been a superb hacker who, during his injury a week ago, was discovered with some trace of his crime left on his body, like a memory stick. In that case, he would have been both under medical care and arrest at the same time, which would have brought Tsuge into the picture. Perhaps then, instead of confiscating Kon's CPU and storage devices, Tsuge and Isamu took it into their own care in order to… for a lack of better terms… bribe MyPlace through anonymous means. Yes, it all added up… until a point. The time at which MyPlace crumbled happened three days after Kon was stabbed… so the worst of the hacking happened when he was likely being hospitalized and therefore out of commission. Still, an event like that might have caused Kon to take action… and Naoto wouldn't doubt that an experienced hacker could find a way.

A terrible mass of contemplations ran through Naoto's head that night. She lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling mindfully as a sleeping Kage clung to her arm as he usually did. All of this was a very fact-free theory… The only thing holding it together was Naoto's determination to connect the two cases, pinpoint Tsuge's wrongdoings, and ultimately lead herself to the boy that extracted Kage from her mind. Then, and only then, would she have a chance to return her Shadow to where he belonged.

April 20th, 2013, Saturday

As the weekend morning rolled in, Naoto felt the light shining on her eyes and she made a drowsy turn away from the window. Now facing the alarm clock, she opened her eyes and took a moment to catch the time. About seven-o-clock… and there was still plenty of time to sleep, but an anxious feeling in her stomach made it difficult to drift off again. Perhaps Mitsuru would call her today… and maybe she would have bad news. Terrible news … Or maybe Naoto was simply being watched. Actually, that sounded pretty likely. And even though she expected it… when Naoto turned to the other side and went nose-to-nose with Kage's wide, golden eyes staring back at her, she couldn't help but jump.

"You-… I-… Just… How long have you been staring at me for?" Naoto stuttered, pulling up the bed sheets.

"A few minutes…" he answered mindlessly, looking up and away at the ceiling instead, "Sorry if it bothered you."

Naoto breathed a small air of relief. "I suppose that's why I woke up…" she spoke, realizing that she probably wouldn't be able to fall asleep again now. Still, the way Kage spoke didn't sound all that tired or bored… instead, he sounded somewhat down. She asked out of curiosity, "… Are you feeling alright?"

To Naoto's question, Kage glanced at her and thought over his words… before looking away again, "I'm fine…"

"Alright…" she shrugged lightly, pulling herself out of bed in order to get changed. Before she could go far, though, she felt a hand tug at her arm and brought her back towards the mattress.

"Wait... No. I think I want to talk," Kage answered, having second-thoughts.

"What is it?" she asked, pulling one leg back up onto the bed.

Huddled into his baggy pajama shirt, Kage hid part of his face behind his sleeves and tried to form his thoughts in a way that she would understand. Indeed, what he was feeling… was going to be very difficult for her to accept, "I really don't know how you're going to take this… so I'm scared."

"It can't be that bad?" Naoto frowned.

Kage sighed and spoke out as bluntly as he could, "Well… I've started thinking that, maybe… I don't want to leave your world. I think I want to stay…"

Naoto's heart immediately sunk. No, this was definitely bad. She turned to her Shadow and sat upright before him, hands fisted, "Kage… You've clearly been here for far too long. You know that isn't right…"

"But why not?" he looked up, "You can stop worrying about tracking down Kon, I can help around the house, and you can move on to bigger, better crimes that actually make sense. And maybe get a shred of your life back…"

"You are a shred of my life, and I need you back!" Naoto insisted, which caused Kage to flatten on the spot.

"Is that all I am…?" he uttered.

Naoto lowered her voice. It was still early in the morning… this wasn't the best time to get so apprehensive on someone, "Kage… That isn't the worst of it… You know why you can't stay here," she spoke, "I still have, if I'm fortunate, about 70 years left of my life to live. Knowing your needs… if you were to stay around that long… you would be guilty for the death of at least seven more innocent people. In a standard human life, one murder is already one too many… It simply cannot be allowed."

Kage stared down at his hands and sat still. That was right… he had already forgotten about that little white lie he had told Naoto after killing Goro. That he would be satisfied for another 10 years… But that was only true when the Internet served as an alternate food source. Now, not even that was accessible. By now, Kage had gone three days without any sustenance, and things were already getting quite uncomfortable. Only in completely ignoring it could he stop from feeling peckish. Realistically, Kage would not be able to last 10 years like this… it was impossible. "Well…" he spoke timidly, "I don't know if that's true anymore… I'm thinking it might actually be about… a week."

Naoto closed her eyes and grit her teeth. "It's been longer than a week… since you last ate…" she remarked referring to the time since Goro died. It had been almost 10 days, in fact. When she looked up again, she noticed that Kage's hands were now hugging close around his stomach, and she could only imagine how much it was hurting him. "You really are hungry again… aren't you?"

"I'm sorry… I didn't know," he apologized, "But… Grandpa showed me something the other day. He said that this world is full of billions and billions of people. That's why I started thinking that maybe this could work out. Would anyone really notice… if I took a life or two?"

"Of course they would!" Naoto quickly shook her head, "I don't know how it works in your world, but over here, no one's life is more valuable than another's. Unless you find something else or make yourself human like Teddie did, it simply isn't going to work."

"But that's not true…!" he whined, "I saw Grandpa eating cow in the food he had the other day… Do you think anyone valued the life of that cow? Also, no one would question it if a lion ate a human, that's just what they do. So what, are you going to turn all the lions into modeled human citizens? Or just kill 'em all off? No, you're not…" he debated, "You just think that your species is the pinnacle of all that is righteous to itself. You can kill anything you want… as long as it isn't your own kind. Well, news flash for host-kun, I'm not the same species as you. I have every right to sustain myself, and no, I don't exist within your 'laws'."

"Kage… are you trying to compare yourself to a lion…? You do realize that they have other options on the menu and rarely kill humans?" she sighed, "While you're in our world, whether you like it or not, you do exist within our laws… And those laws exist to benefit humans."

Kage gave off another disgruntled whine before flopping back down onto his pillow, looking away. The billions-of-people fact was the only thing he had to persuade Naoto and that didn't work. But now he had made his feelings perfectly clear… and also admitted that he was slowly starving. Kage realized that he had probably gone and made things worse, as usual.

"But tell me…" Naoto leaned closer, "Why the change of heart? Why do you want to stay here?"

Kage didn't look back at her, "… I like it here. It's friendly and bright, even though you humans govern yourselves with the most preposterous ideals. But… I would really miss Grandpa, and Kanji… and maybe even Sousei, too…" he whispered, "And I would never be able to talk to you like this again… with my own thoughts and opinions. I feel like when you do take me back, you'll gain something… but I'll have lost everything."

"Thoughts and opinions…?" she relayed back. Lifting her knees up, she rested both her arms and chin against them, contemplating his words. "Those are human traits, yet you won't even give the embodiment of them a second thought… Why?"

"I don't want to be human," Kage answered gruffly.

"I know. Why?"

"Because I don't!"

Naoto gawked, "Well, that's not a very good reason! You say you have opinions on everything else, so give me your opinion on this!"

"You don't need to know…!" he barked back.

"Yes I do!"

Kage let out a powerfully deep groan as he suddenly turned back towards Naoto, the palms of his hands pressing against her legs and side. With one quick shove, he pushed her off of her spot on the mattress and onto the floor. In her tumble, Naoto dragged down a good amount of the blanket and hit the side of her head against the foot of her desk, letting out a sharp yelp. At the same time as her collision, Kage gripped his head and cried from a sudden shot of pain, writhing up against his knees.

Naoto, thankfully still conscious, pressed her head into the blanket and rolled onto her back. Staring up with leering eyes, she snapped at the doppelganger, "What's gotten into you…!?"

Kage rubbed his aching head, muttering words between his teeth, "That hurt…" he whined.

"You don't say!?" she scowled, slowly sitting back up. As she did, she noticed that Kage was curled together and literally feeling as much pain as she was. Naoto glared, "Why are you hurt? You didn't just get pushed off the bed."

"I felt it…" he whimpered lightly.

Naoto blinked, and then rested a hand directly over the left side of her head, "… Right here…?"

Kage looked up and then slowly nodded, rubbing the same spot tenderly.

"You connected…" Naoto whispered in revelation, "I mean… Don't go pushing me off the bed again, you damn miscreant… but… we actually connected for a moment there, didn't we?"

"Because I hurt you?" Kage frowned, "I don't want to do that again… I don't… I… really don't know why I did that…"

Naoto willingly rest herself on the floor and set her sore head down, sighing as she stared upwards, "I pushed you, and you pushed me… Don't worry about it…" she answered, "Maybe… it happened because I felt threatened. Our Personas come to us whenever we're in danger… don't they? Rather ironic if you're the one that threatened me, though…"

Kage set his hands down, feeling the discomfort going away, "It's like I have to protect you from myself… I really am no good as a Persona like this. So far I've only managed to make things worse for you…"

Well, his whiney nature certainly never changed. Something about that childish behavior of Kage's was both irritating, but extremely nostalgic. However, before Naoto could complement him on his extreme pessimism skills, she heard a small murmuring vibration above her. Upon her computer desk was her cell phone, which moved a very minimal amount across the wooden surface when it vibrated just once. This signified that Naoto had received a text message, and she was quick to sit up and read it. Regrettably, she winced as the blood rushed through her head.

"It's…" Naoto flipped open her phone and accessed the inbox, "… It is…! It's Mitsuru."

Kage leaned forwards out of curiosity as Naoto scanned over the message, trying to get at an angle where he could see it. Before he could get sight of it, though, Naoto was already typing back a reply. "Come on, what did it say? What did it saaay?" he demanded.

"She said that she'll be available all day… I'm letting her know that I'll be online right away," Naoto answered, hitting send and looking back up at Kage, "I think she has our results."

* * *

Finally changed and presentable, Naoto had taken a small tablet for her migraine. Mitsuru didn't have to know about Kage and Naoto's little quarrel, and thankfully neither of them showed any obvious signs from it. No bumps or bruises, just minor headaches. Though, throughout the beginning of their morning, Kage had gone from hungry-depressed to overly apologetic. He followed Naoto through her morning routine and anytime she seemed irritated from the sore on her head, he quickly ran up and hugged her in an attempt to make it feel better. Of course, this was usually rewarded with a small shove and a few 'stop that's. By the time Naoto managed to sit back down at her computer, Kage had run down to the kitchen insisting that he was going to try making her breakfast this morning. Thankfully, Grandpa was already awake so Naoto trusted that her Shadow wouldn't be able to get into too much mischief. Still, she half expected Kage to return with a plate covered in ground beef that had been shaped to look like a human hand, or something else equally morbid… But for now, she had time to set up and contact Mitsuru.

When the cameras came on, the two of them greeted each other with good mornings and eyes that poorly hid the fact that it was eight in the morning. No one really enjoyed being up this early on a weekend, but this was important.

Mitsuru shuffled a stack of papers in her hand, "Well, your test results are in."

"Is it anything bad…?" Naoto questioned, feeling her hands going clammy. This was the moment of truth. If there was any connection between the Shadow Extraction incident and the odd occurrences that happened years ago at the Kirijo Labs, then the lives of countless individuals could be at risk.

"You're going to die in five days," Mitsuru spoke bluntly.

Naoto's eyes snapped open, "What…!?"

Mitsuru's attempt at holding a straight face failed completely, and she shook her head laughing, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding…! You're fine… everything is just fine. But you are pregnant."

"HOW!?" Naoto's hands came down hard on her desk.

Mitsuru reeled back into her chair laughing, a hand covering half of her face, "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…! You're too easy, Shirogane," she chuckled. When Mitsuru looked back at the computer screen, all she could see was a perfectly shocked Naoto looking back at her with cold eyes.

Considering everything that the young detective had been through, this was hardly the time for making jokes. Furthermore, Naoto couldn't determine whether Mitsuru was just trying to lighten the mood before some bad news, or if there was actually nothing to worry about. Still, that was a rather dirty prank. "Please… In all seriousness, Kirijo-san," Naoto requested with a frown.

"Alright then…" she sighed, eyes glancing down at the papers before her. "I didn't want you to be too alarmed by the real news… so I tried to get the shock out of your system first. Perhaps you can now appreciate that, no, you are not pregnant nor are you going to die within the week. However… I have found traces of our mystery substance within both you and Tatsumi-kun. And before you ask, yes, it is currently being suppressed by the power of your Persona's existence. And… yes, I can confirm that it is the exact same substance from our experiments long ago."

"Just as we suspected, then…" Naoto felt a tremble growing in her voice, "Mitsuru… I cannot even fathom how many people may be affected by this haze. I intend to survey as much of my school's population as I can, but that will have to wait until Monday and there is little chance that I will have everyone accounted for. Above all, the spread of it could be even worse on the streets. I do not know where to begin with this…"

"Naoto," Mitsuru shook her head, "You have one very important hint in front of you right now. I'm rather surprised that you haven't figured it out yet… Rather, tell me… how many deaths have been noticed due to this strange haze in general?"

Naoto looked up, "Just one… the individual that I spoke of before, Goro Yagi. When we visited him, he was at the peak of his mental instability and died the very same night. This all happened about ten days ago."

"No one else?" Mitsuru asked.

"Not that I know of…"

Mitsuru continued, "Then, could you assume that he might have been the first? You said something about Goro being the leader of a gang. It may have been a gang that came together out of a common interest in Shadow Extracting…"

"But he knew nothing about what Personas and Shadows are…" Naoto shook her head, "I know he was mad, but I highly doubt that he was the one that first created the Shadow Extraction phenomenon."

"No… I don't mean that he's the creator. I mean that Goro Yagi may have been the first to die because of it," she corrected.

Naoto bit her lip, "It is true that if everyone decays at the same rate, then his death is the first time that I've heard of the haze. As well, anyone else that he may have extracted shortly after would, by now, be close to their deaths…"

"Yes… Because how long does it take for someone to decay?" Mitsuru asked, leaning forwards with a gleam in her eyes.

"As you said… two months," Naoto spoke. All at once, she quickly sat up and surprised the living daylights out of Kage as he wandered quietly back into the room with a dish of pancakes. Good looking pancakes. Not beef, not human hands… It was an actual breakfast. But that wasn't the reason for Naoto's sudden rise. "Goro must have been first extracted two months ago…! If he was the first to have it done, creator or not, then the first Shadow Extraction in general occurred two months ago."

"And ten days," Mitsuru added on.

"… And ten days…!" Naoto slowly sat back down into her seat and placed a hand against her forehead, eyes wide with revelation, "That would have been… somewhere around the beginning of February. Dear god… If all that time has passed without anyone knowing about the dangers of Shadow Extracting, then we have two months' worth of people in peril right now…"

"Gradually… but yes," Mitsuru hung her head down, "But you now have a general timeline… Can you think of anything that may have happened that long ago? Anything in the news?"

"Two months ago… Though it doesn't feel like very long ago, I was just finishing up my last semester as a second year student. This month marked the beginning of my third year," she spoke, glancing over at the hanging uniform behind her. Since they were still in their winter outfits, the assemblage included a pale grey blazer that had the student's year indicated by a symbol in the collar. For a third year such as Naoto, the symbol was shaped into a triangle, symbolized by the amount of corners.

It was during this little turn around that Naoto finally noticed Kage's return, the plate of pancakes balanced in his hands. He had been standing behind her like a polite little butler, not wishing to interrupt her conversation. Of course, his timing could have been better. "Oh- Kage, those look… good…" she said with a hint of surprise in her voice, "But I really shouldn't eat in front of the camera." When she turned apologetically back to Mitsuru, Naoto noticed that the other woman was taking the brief chance to bite down into a sesame bagel.

Mitsuru stared back up in mid-bite, and then quickly put it away and pat her lips with a napkin, "I… That's… obviously not a problem."

Naoto gave off a soft sigh and smiled, setting the plate down next to her on the desk. "Did you actually make these…?" she asked the Shadow with a whisper.

Kage scrunched his shoulders up and looked off to the side, "Grandpa wouldn't let me… So he made them for you instead."

Mitsuru couldn't help but give off a soft laugh on her end, "You've really got that thing house trained, haven't you…?" She ignored it when Kage stuck out his tongue at her in response.

"Thank you anyways," Naoto spoke to the boy, appreciating his efforts at making the morning better. Like-wise, she didn't want to humor Mitsuru too much over how Kage had become 'a good little Shadow.' There were more important things to talk about, "Mitsuru, we have plenty to be concerned with right now… I think I may have a lead on the cause of all of this, but even then I'm not entirely sure."

"You mean that student that pulled your Shadow from you?" she clarified.

Naoto nodded, "Yes… Sousei provided me with some valuable information. I'm starting to believe that the reason why I can't find Kon is because he is being specifically hidden from me. Someone doesn't want me to find him… And I have a hunch on who that is."

"Who are you thinking of?" Mitsuru questioned.

"The head of our department… Tetsuma Tsuge. He's been discussing supposedly unrelated issues with a man that none of us know, yet they already appear to be business partners," Naoto shrugged lightly, "He is the only one standing in my way… Tsuge doesn't want me on the Shadow Extraction case anymore, but now I see why that might be." Indeed, there shouldn't have been any doubt in Tsuge's mind that Naoto was innocent. The way Goro died couldn't have been done by human hands… Kicking her off of the case because she could have been suspected for his murder was just a convenient cover-up. A reason… However, as Naoto tried to focus on her pancakes after that quick explanation, she noticed that Mitsuru's eyes had gone wide. "What…?" Naoto blinked.

"Tetsuma… Tsuge?" Mitsuru replied back to her, to which Naoto very slowly nodded. "The stories I have about a man sharing that same name are quite endless… Tell me, is he a rather strongly built man, red hair, slicked back…? Going a bit grey down the center?"

"You remember him quite well, indeed… Yes, I'm sure that we are thinking of the same man," Naoto said, setting her fork down. Despite her calm attitude towards this coincidence, she could feel her heart beating fast.

"That man… He used to work under my father at the Kirijo Labs decades ago… I've seen him sparingly since the accident, and it seemed like he had put everything behind him and began his life anew, but Naoto-kun, I assure you…" Mitsuru's head slowly shook from side to side, "That man knows perfectly well what we're dealing with here… Tsuge-san was very intrigued by the properties of Shadows and Personas when we first encountered both. Being that he was so young back then, he and a small handful of scientists took it upon themselves to study and probe them beyond our strict regimen, claiming that we couldn't waste any time. The risks that they took were…"

Naoto leaned in close to the computer screen, waiting for Mitsuru to continue… but she did not.

"I'm sorry…" the older woman shook her head, "Of all the things I've told you so far… Please imagine the level of severity with this one, since I simply cannot tell you about it. He was in no way associated with the individuals that brought about the destruction of the Kirijo Labs in 1999, but even they remained with some degree of recognition as employees of our company. From what Tetsuma was involved in, though… we couldn't take any of them back. I see now that he moved to your city and found himself a respectable job at your police station. However, if you and Sousei found reason to suspect him… then I believe you have reason to follow his every move. Tsuge should have known what he was dealing with when he saw the remains of Goro's body. And then, to remove you from the investigation…? This is no mere coincidence."

"We might be spot on…" Naoto's eyes widened, "I could never have imagined any of this about Tsuge… The world is truly a small place. But how could it be that Sousei doesn't recognize him, then?"

"This was quite some time ago, Naoto. There's a chance that after the explosion, Sousei either suffered some sort of repaired damage, or perhaps all of the Anti-Shadow weapons got reset at some point. Either way, while they have a built-in database about all the currently recognized Shadows, they do not have a database on past and present Kirijo employees," Mitsuru explained, "Their social knowledge is purely from their own experiences and from whom they meet personally."

"I see… Still, this was a very enlightening conversation. If Tsuge truly is the one behind all of this, then we'll have his crimes tracked down without any delay," Naoto spoke with gusto in her voice.

Mitsuru was quick to stop her, "You should know what your first concern is, Naoto-kun. Though time may be of the essence here, your personal health should be your number one concern. Same with Kanji-kun's… It would relieve much of my anxiety if you came here with him as soon as possible to have that haze extracted. Even though it may be suppressed by your Personas, you can't just let it be."

Naoto sat back down in her seat and sighed, arms crossed in front of her stomach, "You're right… I would rather if it was gone than take any chances," she answered, "Coincidentally… I intended on seeing Tatsumi-kun tomorrow. Would that be a good day to get this done…? And I assume you mean all the way at your location." It would be quite the drive, but thankfully Sousei had already made it there once recently. And since Kage had developed such a trusting relationship with Grandpa, Naoto knew that they could be left alone for the day.

"Very well, I would like to have today to prepare for your visit anyways. And by tomorrow you can return those bracelets to me as well. You won't need them from this point on, by the way." Mitsuru answered, "… Additionally, in case either of you were concerned… this isn't a very in depth surgery. It's more akin to… radiation therapy. Without the damaging effects, I mean."

Naoto winced lightly, "Is that supposed to make it sound harmless?"

"Truly, it is. These are not gamma rays, but rays which reverse the development of the haze's chemical make-up. Being the particular substance that it is, it has no effect on the body's natural tissue."

Naoto would have to trust Mitsuru on this one… Of course, having to explain this back to Kanji was going to be difficult. If he questioned how Mitsuru was going to extract the haze, Naoto would probably just answer 'With SCIENCE' and be done with it. Knowing him, though, he'd probably accept such an answer. So, with the remainder of Naoto's day available to her, she finished up her pancakes and did just as Mitsuru intended to do: plan out their visit for tomorrow. Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly the kind of meeting she expected with Kanji… He probably expected something more along the lines of a date, but at least it was something. If they rode Sousei together, then the ride alone would provide enough closeness to last Naoto's heart… perhaps a year. She was a fan of her own personal space.

With the computer turned off and a plate in her hands, Naoto turned to Kage and motioned him to follow, "Alright, let's see if your usual baby sitter is free tomorrow… Do you think you'll be able to manage for a few days?"

"I'm not a baby," Kage puffed out his cheeks as he followed, "But… I think I can."


	16. Chapter 16 - L

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

April 21st, 2013, Sunday

By the following day, Naoto had informed Kanji about their trip and the procedure that they would have to undergo. Naturally, Kanji couldn't help but make a few jokes since their first order of business after becoming a couple was… to get something 'similar to radiation therapy' done, as she had put it. He jokingly told Naoto that she was going to be a handful, to which she rolled her eyes and tried to keep the conversation serious.

When the time to leave came, Kage ran up to Naoto and pleaded her to get him something to eat while she was out. "If they have any spare Shadows lying around, that will be alright," he spoke with wide puppy eyes.

Thanks to that, Naoto began to think that maybe Mitsuru would have some sort of supplement to keep the little Shadow going… Their location was the top research institution in Shadow/Persona related technologies. Entirely illegal research, but nonetheless… Naoto would at least ask.

When she left with Sousei to go pick up Kanji, Kage waved lightly through the estate's windows until his host was completely out of sight. Then, he proceeded to run down the stairs and towards the living room where Grandpa was sitting on his favorite recliner with a newspaper in hand and some no-attention-required sitcom playing on the TV. All Grandpa could hear was a small thud before him, and as he slowly lowered the newspaper, he found the Shadow laying on the ground before him, belly down, looking perfectly dismal.

Grandpa set the newspaper on his lap and folded his arms, "You're no cat, my boy…" he joked.

Kage could feel the man's foot trying to roll him back onto his side, and he did so without complaint. Looking up, he produced a pitiful frown, "Grandpaaaaa… I'm hungrryyy," he whined.

"Is that all?" Grandpa asked, standing up and putting his paper away, "Well, I shouldn't be surprised… You didn't even have a taste of the stew I offered you the other day." Rubbing the small of his back, he walked towards the kitchen to see what they had.

"Well, that's…" Kage looked away, timid to remind the man of what he'd always eaten before coming to this world, "I don't really have a taste… for that kind of food. At all, actually…"

Grandpa closed his eyes, "Mm… I remember that Naoto was a bit of a picky eater too. It's something most children grow out of, though," he spoke, turning towards the Shadow, "You're probably confused about this world since it's so different from your own. Do you not trust that if you eat our food, it might actually make you feel better?"

Kage looked at him with an unsure stare. He could tell that the old man was trying to be sympathetic, but there were no humans in existence that could truly understand his situation and feelings. "Host-kun made me breakfast before… and it didn't settle very well," he explained "I couldn't taste any of it, but I knew it was supposed to be tasty… I could barely smell it, and that's all. There's nothing gratifying about that, and even more, it hurt my stomach afterwards..."

"I see… So something that smells pleasant and would be good on your stomach?" Grandpa rested a hand under his chin as he contemplated what could work best. "Well… Why don't you come over here and smell something out? You might find at least one thing that's appealing."

Kage sighed and walked over to the kitchen where Grandpa had the fridge open. The only thing he ever found appealing was a bottle of shampoo, and that wasn't even food. "Are you really suggesting that I eat this lifeless filth? I'd rather suck on a rock…" he spoke, head poked into the fridge. Nothing looked familiar at all…

"Lifeless…? Well, I regret to inform you that we don't eat our food live. Unless you count fruits and vegetables," he said, reaching into the fruit crisper drawer and opening a bag of small tangerines. Peeling off a layer, Grandpa figured that maybe the citrus smell alone would attract Kage's attention.

The little Shadow looked over at the orange fruit with a negative response, eyes leering at it, "Grandpa… Really…? Vegetables and fruit?" he leaned forwards at the man and opened his mouth wide before making a quick chomp at the air, "Do these look like the teeth of an herbivore to you?"

"… Omnivore, actually," Grandpa answered, holding back his amused smirk. "I'm sorry, but you look entirely human except for a few defining features, and your teeth are not one of them. If your stomach is no different, then it should follow that you can handle a few leafy greens."

Kage quickly turned away with a small 'peuh' and resisted the foul thing, even if the faint smell of citrus did indeed catch his attention. Though, whether or not it was appealing was a different matter. Continuing his search, Kage opened a few more drawers in the fridge until he came across the meat section. Unsurprisingly, he was thrown off by the packaging, preservative fluids and lack of bloody murder. Reaching in, he pulled out a package of sliced turkey and lifted it towards Grandpa, "What the heck is this?"

"Meat," he answered. "It's turkey, a kind of bird."

"It's dead…" Kage remarked, taking a small whiff of it before reeling back, "Very dead. Your species has no issue with eating something weeks after it's been killed?"

Grandpa bit his lower lip, "I see that is an issue for you… But your only option then would be a vegan diet, which you seem to dislike as well."

Kage pointed out the door, "Unless you let me go kill something myself?"

"Please don't," Grandpa shook his head. The Shadow wouldn't find much wildlife in the area anyways. Just domestic house pets, and that would be an entirely unacceptable dinner choice. Just as the man was about to give up on the situation, he remembered one other food that was both soft on the stomach and full of living organisms. He snapped his fingers and reached into the side of the fridge, pulling out a sealed plastic container. As he lifted off the lid, Grandpa also reached into the counter for a spoon and handed both to Kage.

The Shadow stared at the substance before him with fascination. It looked… goopy, sort of pink, felt cold in his hands, and smelled faintly of strawberries. Kage could hardly identify this as a fruit, though… it was far too creamy for that. "What is this…?" he asked, "The smell is… certainly not unpleasant…"

"It's called yogurt. Fermented milk that contains bacterial cultures. If it's all the same to you, then yes, the food is still very much alive," he remarked.

Kage tilted the container from side to side curiously, and didn't look too off-put by Grandpa's explanation. If anything, he was rather interested in this… yogurt. It wasn't human, but at this point and time, did it even matter? Maybe there was something unexpected to be enjoyed in this food, and anything was better than slowly starving. "Maybe, then…" Kage spoke, scooping up a spoonful of yogurt and giving it a test.

Grandpa's fingers were crossed behind his back… What happened then was beyond his expectations and indeed a miracle.

Kage blinked a few times and swallowed. Looking down at the container, he quickly grabbed another spoonful and stuffed it into his mouth, eyes lidding contently.

"You… like it…?" Grandpa's eyes widened.

Kage murmured a soft 'Mm' in response, taking a seat on the floor in the middle of the kitchen. Sitting childishly with his legs sprawled out, he continued to take spoonfuls of the yogurt down. When he thought about it, Kage realized that this was the first solid meal he'd had since entering this world. Well, the first one that he was both eager to eat and able to keep down. It was extremely satisfying, but also question producing. Yes, he was a picky eater… But what was the common ground between humans, digital user data, and yogurt? Certainly, the fact that it had to be alive or electrical had something to do with it. Because of that, Kage was probably getting the most out of the food's energy rather than its actual physical contents. Still, this yogurt stuff was highly appealing.

Having devastated the entire bin of yogurt, Kage flopped down onto the ground and spread his arms out. Dropping the spoon onto the floor, he gave off a satisfied sigh.

"Goodness… I'm going to have to get more of that…" Grandpa spoke as he rubbed the back of his head.

* * *

A tireless drive had taken both Kanji and Naoto far from Yagokoro City and into the marina of Tatsumi Port Island. It was tireless because… well, the two were so intensely focused the whole time. Not on the drive in particular, no… More so because of the awkward amount of closeness that forced them to take far more pit stops than necessary. Sousei had handlebars on his rear sides for Kanji to hold onto, but the boy was constantly conflicted with the thought of holding onto Naoto's sides instead. Should he…? Shouldn't he? Was holding onto the other person some ignorant stereotype and not a safe way to ride two up? She didn't seem to mind it when he tilted close to her backside, at least. At that distance, it was also easier for Kanji to notice when she started leaning into her turns. By the end of the ride, he had snuck his arms around her waist a couple of short times and surprisingly, she either didn't notice or didn't care. Thank goodness, because it was making Kanji intensely flustered.

As they neared the port, Sousei began to take a minimal degree of control in order to direct Naoto across the suspended bridge and onto the twin islands. When Gekkoukan High became obvious in the distance, Naoto regained control and drove them towards what was easily the largest building on the entire island.

"It's been a while since we've been here…" Naoto remarked as they drove up to the gate.

Kanji nodded, "Hey, yeah. The school trip… I thought I recognized a few places on the way here."

"Like that flaky hotel?" she reminded, turning off Sousei's engine and looking over her shoulder with a light chuckle.

"Uuuah, don't bring that place up…" he replied and eagerly dismounted from the bike.

When Naoto followed and got off of Sousei, the bike made the transformation to his human-like half and stepped back, excusing himself from the conversation so that he could contact Mitsuru about their arrival.

During their wait, Kanji couldn't help but resurface the previous topic and decided to ask something that he had just noticed now. "So… on the night that we stayed at that inn, I was sharing a room with Teddie and both senpai. I guess the girls got their own room, too… But when I think about it, wasn't that at a time when the whole school… uh… including us… kind'a thought you were a dude?"

Naoto lowered her head, "Yes… it was."

"So, uh… Did you get your own room or something?"

"Actually… as much as I would have preferred that, I was forced into a room with three other fellow classmates. Males… And considering the fact that there was only one large bed in the entire room, it was indeed quite uncomfortable," she explained, "I feigned passing out the moment we got into the room so I could avoid having to change."

"Clever girl," Kanji remarked.

Naoto gave him an unimpressed glance before she continued, "As you can imagine, there were plenty of high-fives and jeers when my identity was given away."

"Our class really couldn't keep its mouth shut, could it…?" Kanji rested a hand on his forehead and rubbed his temples, "Pissed me off…"

Naoto looked up with a soft smile, "At least someone understood…"

The grin that Kanji returned was short lived as the gate to the school suddenly opened. On the other side was Mitsuru, dressed as fashionably as she always did. When the gate came to a clicking stop, she stepped forwards and greeted the three with a small bow.

"It's a pleasure being able to see you all again face-to-face," she spoke, "And Sousei… that you're also doing well. Please, follow me."

Lead on by Mitsuru, the four of them made small talk on their way to the school and its underground laboratories. Mitsuru mentioned that if she didn't know who the two of them were supposed to be, she wouldn't have recognized Kanji and Naoto at all. The added length of Naoto's hair and Kanji's lack of slicked back gelling had greatly altered their appearances. Still, she recognized Naoto from the webcam calls and Kanji was as intimidatingly tall and pierced as ever.

When they entered the school, they followed down a route that neither Kanji nor Naoto had been toured around when they first visited the school during their social exchange trip. Entering a rather uninviting stairwell, they followed it down to a specific floor where the door was locked and only accessible by keycard. Mitsuru had a physical one, whereas Sousei was able to scan himself right into the system to get access. Unlocking the door, it gave off a defining beep and a green light appeared on the card reader, allowing the group to pass through.

One thing Naoto noticed when they entered the labs was that the walls looked as if they should have been bleached white and sterile, but the lack of lighting down the hallways gave it the atmosphere of a haunted hospital at night instead. She stepped a little closer to Kanji and frowned, "I take it not too many people come down here nowadays…"

"There's me, the active Shadow Suppression Weapons, Akihiko-san, and a few other stragglers from SEES that visit from time to time. Some come to me with their own problems, and some come just for the sake of visiting… The Shadow Operatives has moved its main base of operations to a building in the financial sector where we mostly exist just to manage our own funds and debts. It's not like how it used to be," she explained with an air of reminiscence in her voice, "And down here in these labs, the place is minimally managed and the only things that run are those that are necessary. We're barely operating on an eighth of the electrical power that we used to. But it's still enough to get the machines running that we need. Just, not all at once."

"So, really… the place is just steps away from being abandoned," Kanji spoke.

"The original motive for its existence has been abandoned, yes. But I can't outright cut the power to a place that still serves as a home for all our inactive SSW's and storage to an endless amount of research. Ah- this is the room," she instructed, nearing the end of the hallway and taking the four of them through another door.

The room was lit only by a series of large monitor screens that walled up one side of the room. Though it was dimly lit on the other side, Naoto recognized that this was the room Mitsuru had used whenever they contacted each other online. The things she did recognize were a rather daunting collection of devices stored up in one corner and the shelves that Mitsuru had grabbed the metal bracelets from. Being reminded of that, Naoto pulled out the pair of bracelets and offered them back, "These were certainly helpful. Though, amusingly, we ended up coming here in the end anyways."

"Yes, well… we just went with what was most convenient at the time," Mitsuru smiled as she took back the bracelets, "You didn't want to leave your Shadow alone, nor could it come here itself. Speaking of which, how is it managing without you today?"

"Ah, Grandpa is keeping an eye on him. It seems that they've become endearingly close…" Naoto answered as she looked around the room. Yes… so close that, unfortunately, the little Shadow didn't want to leave anymore. "Speaking of which… he wanted me to ask you. Since you did keep live Shadows here for a brief period of time, we were wondering how you managed to sustain them. Was there some sort of… food source… or… anything of that sort?"

Mitsuru's eagerness to explain things suddenly went dry and silent. She walked around the room and pulled out the instruments that they would need for today's procedure, including a large gurney bed that had been kept stored in the walls. "We… didn't expect that they would need sustenance. And even when they did, we wanted to see how long they could last without it. We starved them for the sake of research…" Mitsuru closed her eyes.

Naoto and Kanji, who would have originally shown no sympathy for such creatures, were locked in silence. Indeed, Shadows were monsters… They were the very definition of a human's worst fears and a good ghost story to tell children around a campfire. But as Kage had proven to them, they were still very much alive and capable of emotion. Knowing this now, the starvation of them sounded absolutely cruel.

Naoto managed to continue the conversation, "So… You have nothing of the sort, then."

"Nothing…" Mitsuru shook her head, "And I can't imagine we'd have anything else that would really help your Shadow live easier. Providing a healthy environment for them wasn't exactly our first priority…"

"That's alright then, we'll think of something else…" Naoto answered, but she was honestly quite distressed by this. The news about Kage's love for yogurt would be a sweet relief, but for now, Naoto was stumped.

Mitsuru wished she could have offered better advice, but the extent of her knowledge when it came to feeding Shadows was either humans or even more Shadows. Obviously, she couldn't provide either of those. Even the dead remains of their deceased Shadow experiments had been moved to another facility for decomposing, so their location was entirely Shadow-free. Still, there were other things to worry about at the moment. On one of the counters, she had an instrument already prepared for their arrival. It looked very much like a stethoscope, but instead of ear pieces on the end, there was a transparent container and a base that was filled with a very intricate maze of mechanics inside.

When Mitsuru picked it up, Naoto stared at it and softly gulped, "And that is…?"

"This is the device that we'll be using today. Believe me when I say that this will only take a minute or two…" Mitsuru tried to explain, "You see, the vapor inside both of you reacts in a semipermeable way with your bodies in that, in any normal case, it is trapped inside, yet its physical make-up can be altered with this device in order to have it vacuumed through the skin."

Kanji's mouth hung slightly, "… You're gonna have to pass that by me again."

Sousei looked up and shook his head, "She means… that the device will absorb the haze. Painlessly, I expect…"

"You won't feel a single thing. Maybe a tingle if you're lucky," Mitsuru answered, "The haze will be converted to a state that's thinner than most gas and capable of passing harmlessly through your system, into here," she tapped the transparent container at the end of the scope's cord.

"I didn't think skin could allow that…" Naoto blinked.

"Shadow science…" Mitsuru rolled her eyes to one side, "That's… how we usually explain it. It's a mystery alone how these creatures manage to get into our minds and devour every trace of our consciousness. Pulling odd substances from one's body shouldn't be restricted to what we know scientifically. We're dealing with something quite beyond that…"

"So be it, then…" Naoto answered, looking back and forth between herself and Kanji, "Who will be first?"

"I can go first," he quickly answered, standing just a little taller due to the ego boost.

"It doesn't really matter who goes first, but thank you for offering," Mitsuru nodded to Kanji, "I will have to ask that you lift or remove your shirt, though."

Unnecessarily quick to act, Kanji lifted off his shirt and sat himself down on the gurney, his backside facing towards Mitsuru. It was obvious that he wanted this over and done with. When she placed the disk end of the device against Kanji's skin, Mitsuru scanned over the various sections of Kanji's back, trying to pick up where the suppressed gas was lying within. It was during this time that Mitsuru noticed that Naoto was staring rather intensely at the scene. Curious, she looked up and gave the detective a small "Hm?"

Naoto quickly crossed her arms and looked around the room instead, pretending that she hadn't been caught watching.

"Haha…" Mitsuru softly chuckled, which got Kanji's attention. "Oh… nothing," Mitsuru excused herself and focused back on her work once she pinpointed the location of the haze. For Kanji, it had harmlessly collected itself into his lower left back, and once the device was activated, a sudden amount of relief could be felt in the same location.

"Huh… Felt like I had a knot in my muscles or something…" Kanji explained, "But I didn't notice it at all until now…"

"That's rather common," Mitsuru claimed, watching as the haze gradually became apparent in the instrument's container. She continued until there were no traces left, and then pressed a trigger on the device that sealed and released the canister. "Though I'm sure you don't mind, I will be keeping this to further my studies. If we're lucky, we might find some valuable information within it," she explained, setting the container down on the counter and grabbing another, affixing it to the instrument, "Next, then?"

"Well, I… uh…" Naoto stuttered lightly as she returned her gaze to Kanji, watching him step down from the gurney to grab his shirt. "If I… have to remove my clothing…"

Kanji quickly took the hint and walked himself to the doorway, "Yeah- so… I'll be out here, then."

Figuring that he had more reason to keep the boy company than watch the procedure again, Sousei followed Kanji outside as well.

Waiting for the both of them to leave, Naoto unbuttoned the front of her cream coloured jacket and removed both it and her shirt. Setting them both down on the counter, she sat herself before Mitsuru the same way that Kanji had and let the woman poke around with the disk.

Doing so, Mitsuru watched over her patient with an amused grin. "Well then…" she spoke, "That was a rather interesting glance that you gave him…"

"I didn't mean to stare," Naoto quickly replied.

Mitsuru shook her head, getting a fix on where the haze was. It was in a similar region, but more focused on the center of her back. "Of course not," she spoke sarcastically.

Naoto looked off to the side as she felt the machine activate and relieved the unexpected tenseness in her back. Lidding her eyes, Naoto gave off a gentle sigh before speaking up again, "… We're… trying to pursue a relationship."

"Oh? Congratulations then," Mitsuru answered.

"Dare I say that it's actually made things a bit more awkward between us, though…? We've only been like this for a couple of days now, but I already can't stop overthinking about everything. During the long ride here… during my calls with him… And just now, shirtless… Mitsuru, I don't understand this," Naoto puffed out her cheeks a bit as she looked over her shoulder at the older woman. She spoke softly, hoping that there was no chance for Kanji to overhear it. "The dynamic of even the simplest of things has changed somehow…"

"Hm… We try to sum up that feeling as 'love', don't we?" Mitsuru answered. Having caught the final traces of the haze during Naoto's discussion, she released the canister and set it down next to Kanji's, grabbing labels for both.

Naoto very quickly put both her shirt and jacket back on, and turned around on the mattress to face Mitsuru, "Is that it, then…? Love is awkward?"

"Most definitely," Mitsuru answered with a wide smile, "But if you care all the same for each other, it will sort itself out."

"I hope it does…" Naoto remarked, her hands gripping the edge of her seat.

Mitsuru nodded, making sure that Naoto had gotten everything off of her shoulders before turning to the doorway, calling out to Kanji and Sousei that they had finished. Thankfully, as they returned, Kanji seemed none the wiser about the conversation that had just taken place.

"We're good, then?" he asked, staring at the two containers on the counter. Within each was a translucent substance that swirled and ebbed between a soft purple colour and total clearness

"All clean," Mitsuru confirmed, placing the labels on each jar, "I'll keep you updated in case I find anything interesting, but neither of you have reason for alarm anymore. If anything ever happened to your Personas, it may have been a worse off situation, but you were fine. So, I suppose unless there are any other questions, we're all done here?"

Kanji shook his head in response, but Naoto dipped her head down and tried to recall anything that may have been unanswered. Something Mitsuru might exclusively know about… Well, there was a lot under that definition, but indeed, there was one thing that Naoto had kept forgetting to ask.

"Actually, I am curious about something. Did you suspect that something bad was going to be happening soon…?" Naoto asked, looking back up, "Before I first started contacting you?"

As Mitsuru grabbed the containers in order to put them into storage, she shook her head at Naoto, "Not in particular, why?"

Naoto nodded, "Well, I was just wondering why you sent out anther Shadow Suppression Weapon to those back in Inaba. I believe it was one of Sousei's sisters?"

The android looked up and smiled when he remembered, "Ah, yes, Ai was there in Inaba when we visited."

"She was? That shouldn't be… She's been inactive for years now," Mitsuru gave the group a bothered stare. She would have asked 'are you sure it was her?' but there was no chance that Sousei would mistake his own sister. "No SSW leaves this facility without my express permission and activation, so that really can't be…" she explained, setting herself down on her computer chair and starting up the system. One by one the monitors activated, and Mitsuru hastily opened the database for all statistical updates on the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons.

"Perhaps it's been a while and you forgot…?" Kanji suggested.

"No, I'm certain she was here just last month…" Mitsuru answered, scanning over the units. Within the expansive list, she finally found Ai's unit and her eyes darted over the information. Lowering her hand from the mouse, she drooped in her chair and stared with great confusion at the computer screen. "April 9th… She was released from our location, apparently under my permission… and yes, transported from here to Inaba. But, that can't be… I was only here a few days that week. Never once was I told about this, but… the confirmation is all here. It says that I'm the one who let her go…"

Naoto stepped up and shook her head, "What does this mean…?"

"This is forgery. It couldn't possibly be anything else… But for what reason would Ai be needed in Inaba?" Mitsuru questioned, turning towards the group.

"She was helping out at Junes when we got there. Rise said that, like us, you probably just wanted those in Inaba to have a little extra protection…" Kanji answered, pretty clear on that memory.

"From what…?" Sousei spoke up. It was a question that was probably on everyone's mind now.

Mitsuru nodded her head and stood up, "I don't know how this could have possibly been done, but now I'm concerned… Excuse me; I would like to check out the unit storage room. You're free to follow if you wish," she invited, making quick haste out the door.

With their own reasons to worry, they all followed Mitsuru down another extension of the hallway and through a number of security locks. The effort that the Kirijo Group took to conceal and protect their irreplaceable work was very obvious. Unfortunately, there was one missing measure due to the lack of funding that would haunt Mitsuru from this day forth: very few operational security cameras. As they unlocked the large double doors and entered the unlit room, their noses were immediately filled with the scent of burning rubber and some sort of spilt, vaporizing oil. It was a harsh, unusual chemical smell. Sousei was the first to enter the room, his artificial pupils dilating to capture more light within the darkness. Mitsuru followed closely after, standing behind the android as her shaking hand reached for the light switch. One by one, the columns of lights awoke until the devastating scene before them became perfectly clear.


	17. Chapter 17 - E

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

Reflected in the drenched floors were rows of black towers, all about the size of a typical human being. Their pristine iron cases were crushed outwards at the front, as if something had forcefully broken its way out of them. Almost every single case was the same, but as Sousei did a quick run around the room, he noticed that both his and Ai's containers were perfectly intact. However, none of them contained their respected androids.

"This happened recently…!" Sousei spoke up, loud enough so that the group still standing at the doorway could hear him. He rested a hand against the broken cases, opening and closing some of their hatches to see inside, "All Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons have been dispatched, forcefully and destructively. Those that were already on the field have intact cases, including Ai who we know was released almost two weeks ago."

"Then was this Ai's doing?" Naoto suggested.

Sousei shook his head, "No… I would have sensed some sort of problem the last time I visited here, which was only four days ago. This must have happened between now and then, and Ai has been in Inaba all this time," he spoke, walking around the towers, "Plus, all of these containers have been broken through from the inside. It doesn't look assisted at all… Indeed, the SSWs all left of their own accord…"

Mitsuru's eyes quickly darted towards Sousei, "Kurogami, these memory hiccups that you've been having lately… After seeing this, I'm starting to worry that you might not be the only one affected by them. It could be that someone has manual override control of all of the lab's androids… They may have forced them all to escape."

"To have control of that much power…" he responded with shrunken pupils, "But that's impossible. It would have to be someone within this facility doing it, and I have a considerable amount of trust that it isn't you, Kirijo-san."

Mitsuru shook her head, "Would I really be that surprised about Ai's release if it was actually me that let her go? No… someone is working behind our backs here. Someone who I worry might have a little more knowledge of this facility than I expected," she spoke, turning her eyes towards Naoto.

Naoto nodded with understanding. There was only one person that Mitsuru could have been referring to: Tetsuma Tsuge. Despite being fired from his job as a Kirijo Employee, he did have a considerable amount of inside info about the company's secret projects. As well, he had apparently done something so unspeakable that even Mitsuru couldn't reveal it to Naoto. That alone was bothersome…

Mitsuru turned her gaze back to Sousei, "Are you able to do a scan for your siblings?"

"Already done…" Sousei answered, his arms crossed. He feared telling them what he had discovered, though, since it was no amount of good news. "You're going to have to recall them back immediately, Kirijo-san… But I feel that it might take them all a few days to return here. The furthest of them… is in the Hokkaido region, with nearly a hundred more dispersed throughout central Japan. They've all gone far… very far." His hands clenched when he thought about what sort of motives could be behind all of this nonsense. He was very capable of feeling sympathy, and right now, he worried the most about his family. "In fact, the closest one I can find is in Inaba, which must be Ai. Other than that, there is one here on this island, and that must be me."

"Hmn… Then perhaps it would be best if I recalled Ai as well… for safety measures. As long as I can override whoever is interfering with their controls…" Mitsuru nodded, and then lifted a brow, "Does your system scan for yourself, though…? I don't believe the most modern SSW's bothered with that…"

Sousei tilted his head, "It doesn't…? I will try to get a more detailed reading then…" he spoke, a hand resting against the side of his head. As he reconsidered the situation in the room, Sousei began to feel very nervous, "Wait… There is something else..." His first scan had been very vague. This time, however, he had pinpointed Gekkoukan High and discovered that there was indeed one android in the very same building. It was logical for Sousei to first think that he was simply picking up himself, but he soon realized that this wasn't true. Very slowly, Sousei stepped backwards towards the group and held a hand against the firing end of his other arm. The sounds of his steps in the shallow puddles on the floor were echoed in the large room, but not perfectly… When Sousei stopped in front of Naoto, they all continued to hear faint steps in the distance until there was silence again.

"That's… just you walkin' about, right…?" Kanji asked quietly, looking out from behind Sousei's shoulder.

Before Sousei could answer the boy, the sound of a whirling object picked up in their ears. Hurled from the darkest corner of the room was the shape of a massive double-edged axe, its blade and base lined with crimson accents. Affixed to a lengthy chain, the axe spun in Kanji's direction, and all at once the group took a sudden dive onto the oily wet floor. Barely dodging the direct attack, the axe continued to spin until it gouged itself into the double door entrance. As the group quickly tried to crawl away to safety, the axe was retracted and it pulled out the door's crash bar, jarring its locking mechanisms. Recoiling back to its owner, its metal staff was grasped into the mechanical hand of Labrys, one of the 5th generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons. Standing within the darkest end of the room, her metal joints shone from the damp wetness that had flooded the room. As well, her pale blue hair which was normally held upright in a long ponytail was now stuck to her backside, giving her the appearance of a drowned albino rat with glowing red eyes.

"Labrys…!?" Mitsuru shouted out from behind Sousei.

Naoto was in a similar position on the floor, ducked behind Kanji who held one arm protectively against her. It seemed as though Labrys' eyes were fixed on the two of them, or at least Kanji. Her initial attack had been directed at him, after all.

Sousei stood at his feet and braced for another attack, this time without surprise. "Kirijo-san, find out who's controlling her…!" he shouted, holding out his arm. As it reformed into the shape of a thick gatling gun, Labrys launched her axe once more and Sousei was able to catch the chain of it around the barrels of his gun. Trying to redirect her attacks away from the group, Sousei charged towards the other android and yanked back the chain, effectively causing her to trip forwards. He then took the opportunity to run past Labrys and grabbed her in a defensive hold from behind.

"With what…!?" Mitsuru questioned, "The SSW server is on another floor, I can't do anything from here!" she reminded. There was no way that she could just leave everyone here. Plus, with the door lock jammed, they would need Sousei's help to get out. Obviously, he was a little preoccupied at the moment.

"Damnit, this could be our only chance…!" Sousei seethed, grabbing onto Labrys' jaw with his regular hand, "Speak! Who's doing this?"

As expected, Labrys gave no verbal response. Even her struggles were entirely voiceless. It was eerie how droned out she seemed, her controlled body thrashing mindlessly in Sousei's grasp. The whole scene was terribly reminiscent of the time when Labrys had entered the TV and was taken over by an unknown, malevolent entity. It was unfortunate to think that she would have to go through with something like it again. Forcing herself out of Sousei's grasp, Labrys activated a pair of burning thrusters in the heels of her round feet and aimed one against her brother's leg.

Once again caught off guard, Sousei was pushed away as Labrys took another charge towards the group. Though they had already scampered a good distance away from the door, there was no way that they could outrun Labrys when she was in full speed. Defensively, Kanji shoved Naoto out of harm's way and turned his back to the oncoming android, bracing for impact.

"No…!" Sousei shouted with obvious pain in his voice as he lifted his lethal arm once more and opened fire on Labrys. He held back nothing now that Kanji and Naoto were in danger, their safety being his first priority.

Labrys's body shook violently in response to the barrage of bullets, causing her to lose her footing. As she collapsed onto the floor, her body gave off one more ignited spark before going completely still again. It had been a short circuit, caused by both the bullet holes in her metal casing and the moisture on the floor that she had fallen into. Thankfully, the extent of the short circuit was limited to only her most mobile parts. Her legs and arms were splayed out and unmoving, but she was still consciously scanning around the room with her eyes.

Sousei stepped forwards with a wretched look on his face, feeling terrible guilt over what he had just done. However, since Labrys's actions had become so unpredictable, this was the only way that he could easily restrain her. As he knelt down at his sister's side, Sousei tried one more time, "Tell us who you are."

The female android's mechanical eyes focused their pupils on him as he spoke, but the only response she gave was a complete deactivation. As the red glow in her eyes faded, the rest of her body went completely limp and void of emotion. There would be no answer.

"Coward…" Sousei closed his eyes, fists clenching. "You're nothing more than a coward…!" The highest pitch of his yell echoed throughout the room, shouting out to an entity that couldn't even hear them anymore.

However, the chance that the intruder had heard the entire conversation from the beginning was quite high. Everything, from when Mitsuru had suspected someone to when Sousei uncovered the range of the SSW's dispersal… If this was valuable information, then it was no surprised that Labrys had been issued to attack when she did.

The brotherly android lifted up Labrys into his arms and turned towards Mitsuru with a distressed frown, "Please… Kirijo-san, there has to be something you can do for her… Something to stop the manual overrides. We can't predict the next time it will happen to her," he pleaded.

Mitsuru sighed, finally getting to her feet. She first looked over at Kanji and Naoto to make sure that neither of her guests had been injured in the crossfire. "As I've told you before, Sousei… the manual override is a key component to any android's programming. Though, the issue doesn't lie in whether or not she'll be able to function without it," she spoke, looking at Sousei again, "… It lies in the fact that she will have to remain a prisoner here in these labs without it. You see, Labrys and many other Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons were developed with an artificial, but very real, sense of emotion and self. Any of you are capable of breaking the core laws of robotics which protects human life. What we saw just now was a pretty clear example of that… The manual override is supposed to be a safe-guard against any androids that may run astray, so that we can command them at will and stop the issue. Without it… we cannot legally let any SSW out of this facility."

Sousei stared down at his sister and hugged her close in his arms, "She'll be a prisoner… But right now, she's far more dangerous with someone unknown piloting her," he looked up, "You'll be able to fix her override functions once we've solved this case, won't you? So she won't have to stay here forever…?"

Mitsuru slowly nodded, "Yes… As well, I will be able to make repairs to her hull and circuits while she's out like this. I just wanted to let you know the extent of the issue. Also, in your own case… you're now posed with a very serious question, too, Kurogami-san," her eyes glanced to everyone in the room before looking back to Sousei, "Will you stay here with your sister and remove yourself as a another possible threat… Or will you continue to assist Shirogane-kun, knowing full well that at any moment you could be under someone else's control?"

Sousei's hands clenched at his sides, and he quickly shot a worried glance at Naoto. How would she get home…? And what if that little Shadow of hers went berserk? "I'm needed…" he whispered lightly, "This could be what our perpetrator wants to happen… If I'm not there to protect Shirogane-kun, then who else will? If we're dealing with a supernatural threat, then no one else here has the fire-power to deal with it. She and Tatsumi-kun will be sitting ducks if I'm not there."

Mitsuru closed her eyes, "Or they could be in worse danger if you are there."

"Will you be prepared to stop me the moment it happens, Kirijo-san…?" Sousei asked.

Mitsuru's reply was first held back by a prolonged silence. Sousei's activity would have to be monitored 24/7 to insure that he would not be any kind of threat, but it was the best option that they had. If anything went wrong, he would have to be deactivated on the spot. "I see… Yes, I will set a personal alarm for myself if our servers sense that your override has been turned on. Even if I am not here in the labs, I will be alerted of it immediately."

"Thank you…" he answered, setting Labrys in Mitsuru's arms. For a robotic maiden, she wasn't terribly heavy for a human to carry. With his hands free, Sousei walked up to the jammed doorway and pulled off the remainder of the door crash's bar. Tossing it off to the side, he manually removed the locking cylinder and the door now freely opened.

Naoto, who had been standing with the assistance of Kanji, stepped away from him and rotated her foot a few times. Good to stand on her own, she pat down her drenched suit and squeezed out some droplets from her hair.

"Hey, uh… Sorry for pushing you," Kanji mentioned, stuffing his hands into his pockets apologetically.

Naoto kept her gaze down, "You… might have just saved my life. Both of our lives, even…" she spoke. Looking up at him, she revealed a grateful smile, "Thank you…"

Kanji quickly looked away, hiding the red in his cheeks, "Aw shit, you should be thanking Sousei… He's the one that stopped Labrys… I just went and made a mess out of us."

Naoto shook her head and laughed lightly, "I'm thankful to everyone here. We now know what we have to do…" she spoke with some excitement in her voice, "And that is to insure that the rest of the androids make it back here safely. In the midst of that, if we can intercept any of their override signals, then we should be able to pinpoint the location of our perpetrator. Finally…"

Mitsuru nodded, "Similarly, if I can deduce anything from that haze we extracted today, then that might help us too," she said, holding Labrys close, "I should quickly get to Labrys's repairs before there is any lasting damage. And I wish you all a safe ride back to Yagokoro. I will be standing by the SSW server during my work, so I will know immediately if there are any issues."

Naoto and Kanji both nodded, ready to leave once more on Sousei. It was difficult to think that they would be enduring a lengthy trip back home on a robot that could potentially lose control at any time. However… the chances of that were very slim. With Mitsuru on stand-by, any override of Sousei's system would immediately reveal the perpetrator's location. Would a criminal mastermind really risk everything just for that? Thankfully, the answer this time was 'no'. Though it was a long and tiresome ride, the group had made it home unharmed and safe. The events at the Kirijo Labs had taken up their entire day and considering that it was now the end of the weekend, Naoto and Kanji had to once again prepare for school. Though, focusing in class would be next to impossible for the both of them, knowing the amount of stray SSW's scattered throughout the nation. But… as Naoto was soon going to find out, that wasn't anywhere close to being the worst of their problems.

April 22nd, 2013, Monday

"Good morning, Touko," Naoto addressed as she entered the classroom, seeing that her friend had made it to her seat first.

Touko, however, was sitting with an unusually odd air about her today. Normally, she was an easygoing girl that sat with arms folded against her desk and her gaze mindlessly staring out the class windows. Nothing could pierce through that over-relaxed demeanor of hers. However, today she sat completely upright with her feet flat on the floor and her hands gripping at her knees. Her gaze was intensely focused and almost paranoid. When Naoto spoke to her, Touko quickly looked up and glared, "Today is the day."

"Today is what day?" Naoto answered, taking her seat.

Touko responded by slapping down a lined sheet of paper on her desk, her eyes fixed on Naoto, "The day we identify all of the people that have been Shadow Extracted in this school. Did you already forget?"

Naoto frowned, "No, actually… I was rather prepared to do this today."

"Good, then we need to act fast. During the lunch break, we're going to interview as many students as we can and write down all of victim's names on this paper. If anyone can provide us with any hints, then we need to take note of that as well," Touko spoke quickly, "And by victims, I mean those that have been Shadow Extracted. I took the liberty of writing down the names of those that we already know have had it done. It should provide a good start."

Naoto kept her eyes on Touko as she took the piece of paper in hand. What was with that stare…? And that sudden sense of urgency? Not that this wasn't important, but… something was different about Touko today. Looking down at the paper, Naoto mentally read off all the names listed. Of course, Naoto herself was on the list… and a few of the students that were there during the mysterious student's appearance. And then, at the very bottom of the list…

Naoto quickly looked up, "Why are you listed on here?"

Touko nipped her bottom lip, but she remained headstrong on the matter, "When I last talked to you, I told you how certain I was that everything we witnessed from the Shadow Extractions… those creatures… that brainwashed feeling… that all of it had to be real. I realized that you knew something I didn't, and that alone bothered me immensely… I started to feel like you were hiding from the case not because of Tsuge's dismissal of you, but because there might be something about all of this that you've been refusing to tell me," Touko spoke, shaking her head, "You've remained curious about everything, including Tsuge and Sousei's work at the station… But from my viewpoint, you've been completely avoiding this case… so why have you been so curious? I know there's something more to this… and I wanted to find out for myself what it might be."

Naoto's fingers held tightly onto the paper, only enough so that it wouldn't rip. "Touko… You got yourself extracted because you thought I knew something special?" her voice hissed, "Are you an idiot…!?"

"Then there is something, isn't there?" Touko spoke up, "Something you know about this case!"

"I 'know' that Shadow Extracting is dangerous, and that you've just put your life on the line by doing it…!" Naoto breathed deeply, "Everyone in this school who's had it done in these past few weeks… all of them are in terrible danger."

Touko's pupils shrunk, "And how do you know any of that…? Are you saying you understand what Shadow Extracting is…?"

Naoto leaned in close to Touko and whispered, "I do… I understand that it rips a piece of your psyche from your body and infects it with a terrible disease… A fatal one which rots its host after a period of two months…" she stared hard into Touko's eyes, "I was able to confirm the severity of this situation just two days ago. Had I known you would do such a reckless thing in the meantime, I would have chained you to your house and told you to never go outside this weekend. You're a fool, Touko… a terrible fool."

Touko was at a loss for words. "You're kidding me… None of that makes any logical sense," she frowned, "Ripping one's psyche out? … Come on, what does that even mean?"

Naoto sat up straight, setting the paper back down on the desk before her. It took a great amount of deliberation to make Naoto realize that this was the best course of action. To tell Touko about the truth of Shadow Extracting… to reveal the dangers and urgency behind everything… She was taking a big risk. These sorts of supernatural powers weren't something that everyone needed to know. In fact, since they could ultimately be abused, Naoto was always rather hush-hush about the topic. Unfortunately, since Touko's life was apparently on the line now… there was no reason to keep it a secret anymore. "After school… I'll show you what I mean, alright?"

Touko gave her a skeptical leer before nodding in agreement, "Alright then… But our first order of business is still to get a population count during lunch. Now that you've told me all of this… I suddenly have even more things to worry about. Thanks for that," she closed her eyes and sighed.

Naoto smiled lightly, sitting forwards since class was about start, "Oh…? Well, you'll soon see what I've had to put up with these past two weeks…"

* * *

Their mission during the lunch break had been quite successful. As they totaled the number of people that had been Shadow Extracted in the school, they discovered that at least a third of their survey had indeed come in contact with the phenomenon. Though they were unable to collect every student's answer, they had found at least 70 or so people that had been extracted. And this was from within the school alone… Naoto didn't want to imagine how far those 70 people could have spread it outside of the school's walls.

"How did it get this bad so quickly…?" Naoto spoke as her and Touko dismounted from Sousei in front of the Shirogane estate. Her voice was full of disbelief, "And even more, how would no one notice something so odd…? I mean, with ghostly creatures appearing left and right every time it happens…"

Touko quickly stopped Naoto before they could enter the house, eyes wide, "Wait, that's exactly what I wanted to tell you…! When I was Shadow Extracted, there were no such creatures… It was exactly as you explained in terms of how it felt, but neither I nor the extractor noticed any of those weird apparitions. Apparently the only time that ever happened was when that odd student from before did it."

Naoto stood still, "Is that true…?" Though she was already quite convinced that Kon had some sort of special hand in all of this, Touko's fact only solidified it further. So, Kon was able to extract Personas in a very particular way… Not only could he make them visible, he could outright pull them into this physical realm. Naoto closed her eyes and nodded, "That student… There are many things about him that have been bothering me. Unfortunately, I haven't seen him since that one event, but what he did to me… I feel like it's something that no one else has been able to do. What you said just now confirmed that," she nodded to Touko, hand shaking lightly as she reached for the doorknob, "Please, don't be alarmed by what I'm about to show you…"

Touko took a deep breath and stood at Naoto's side, entering the doorway with her. Now, Touko was quite aware that Naoto lived with her grandfather. And as far as she was aware, the Shirogane estate didn't really get that many family visits either. So the moment the two of them entered the hallways and stared down at the living room, Touko was quite surprised to see a youthfully aged person reclined on one of the couches.

Kage quickly looked up from the couch with a smile, but it faded when he saw the somewhat unfamiliar person entering the house with Naoto. Touko was only 'somewhat unfamiliar' to him because, considering Naoto's memories, Kage definitely knew who Touko was. But face-to-face, she was a total stranger to him. Meekly, he lowered himself down behind the arm of the couch and pretended he wasn't there.

"Who's that…?" Touko questioned, looking at Naoto. Since Grandpa wasn't there at the moment, Touko developed the odd assumption that maybe Naoto's Grandpa had been de-aged quite a few decades… It would explain why they looked so much alike. But instead, the answer Touko received was even weirder.

"That's… Well, that's me. My psyche that I spoke of…" Naoto answered quite bluntly, "His name is Kage."

Touko's hand quickly plastered to her forehead, "Excuse me. What…? Another you?" And Naoto had named it, too!

"It's called a Shadow," Naoto explained, "Everyone has one… inside their subconscious. They aren't meant to exist as real, living creatures in our world, but somehow that student from before was able to make it happen. So… here he is… physical body and all."

Touko was still skeptical, but when she walked up closer to Kage and took a good look at him, she was able to tell. The two people before her were perfect carbon copies… Even identical twins had minor differences, but these two were a match down to every freckle and hair. It made it difficult for Touko to understand how this could be a 'he' since Kage had all of Naoto's feminine physical features. Obviously, she didn't need it proven to her, either. But despite their hair length, eye colour and clothing, this was definitely just another Naoto. Touko stood back and covered her mouth, "Impossible…"

"You wanted to know the truth…" Naoto reminded her, "And now you see why I can't leave this case alone. Not only are the lives of many at stake, but we can't just have duplicates of people running around either. He's not meant to be here…" she spoke those last few words with a sour note in her voice. She hated saying that kind of thing around Kage.

Having lurched away from Touko's examining eyes, Kage shuffled over to the other side of the couch and wrapped his arms around a big container of yogurt that he had left there. "But…" he frowned, looking up at Naoto. The inhuman shrill in his voice quickly caught Touko's attention, "… I don't have to leave."

Naoto dropped her shoulders and sighed, looking at Touko, "It's been that kind of situation…"

"But really…!" Kage whined, dipping a spoon into the yogurt, "Look!" To Naoto's surprise, Kage devoured the spoonful of yogurt without issue. In fact, he seemed to outright enjoy it. The little Shadow licked his lips a few times and Naoto's jaw slowly began to drop. Obviously, Touko didn't see what the big deal was.

"He likes yogurt?" Touko blinked.

Naoto's mouth was still hanging, "He likes yogurt…!"

"I like yogurt," Kage clarified with a content chirp, stuffing another spoonful into his mouth.

"But I don't understand… I thought you couldn't eat human food. That's why you couldn't stay here…" Naoto spoke, adding on that last bit in order to help Touko understand the situation.

Kage wiggled on the spot happily, "Grandpa said there was some sort of life in this stuff. Apparently I can eat it… and it smells really good, too."

Naoto closed her eyes and thanked the Gods for this unexpected miracle. Though at the same time, why couldn't they have realized this sooner? It would have saved a lot of stress to know that Kage could be satisfied by simple bacterial yogurt. Still, this changed the dynamics of everything. Would he actually be able to survive in this world…? For an extended amount of time, maybe? Naoto didn't know how to feel about him staying, but at least he would be fine for now.

Touko crossed her arms and chuckled softly, "So this is, like… your inner-child or something, isn't it?" she questioned, kneeling down before Kage again. The Shadow shuffled back into the couch when the girl got closer. Raising a hand to him, Touko looked at Naoto and asked, "Is it alright…?"

Naoto shrugged lightly, "Ask him, not me."

Nodding Touko looked back towards the creature and lifted a hand to his cheek, "Okay?"

In response, Kage closed his eyes uncaringly and turned his cheek towards her hand, letting her have a touch. Setting the palm of her hand against it, Touko smiled at the soft warmth that his skin gave off. She curiously touched a finger to his nose and against his jawline, and then set her hand back down, "This is no joke, it really is another you… But how can this possibly make any sense? Matter and life don't just appear out of nowhere like this."

Naoto rubbed the back of her head. "Shadow science…" she spoke, copying Mitsuru's line. Now she understood how convenient the phrase was, "What we do know is that Kage is the only Shadow that has been physically pulled from someone. In any other case, such as your own… it causes a different issue. If you can recall the remains of Goro Yagi's body after he died… well, that 'rotting' thing I spoke of previously? That's exactly what I meant... He must have been Shadow Extracted two months ago, and what we saw then was the result of it," as she spoke, she saw Touko's face paralyzing with fear. Naoto quickly lifted a hand, "Ah- but we found the cure for it. We can have you treated, so you shouldn't be in any sort of danger right now."

Touko slumped back and rested a hand behind her neck, sighing with great relief. That explained why Naoto wasn't concerned about her own health at all "And you've been dealing with this for the past… two weeks? No wonder you've seemed so preoccupied lately…"

"It has been a long two weeks trying to get him adjusted to our ways of living, and I'd like to say that we've come far. However, as you can see, he's gotten unusually comfortable about staying here, and… I just don't know what to do. We're in the process of tracking down the boy that extracted him from me, and I'm hoping he'll be able to shed some light on what we should be doing. Whether he's a good kid or not, that boy knows more about this phenomenon than he should. I feel like he'll be able to reverse the disease that's been spreading, or at least put an end to it. Though, in regards to his disappearance… I worry that the wrong hands might have gotten a hold of him…" Naoto explained.

"The wrong hands? I thought that boy was your prime suspect," Touko questioned.

Naoto quickly shook her head, "It's just a theory. But there is someone else who knows about the phenomenon of Shadow Extracting, and possibly where it even came from. That boy could be nothing more than an accomplice of his. I cannot divulge you into too many of the details, but I did learn that… Tetsuma Tsuge… has quite the history in paranormal research. Research that resulted in accidents very similar to the Shadow Extraction case we're seeing now. Every issue that we've had this week seems to relate back to the facility that he used to work for, and whether or not he's resurfacing old experiments out of revenge or pride or… whatever his motive is… he 'is' the one person I know right now who could ultimately have control over everything," Naoto declared. When she meant control, she was definitely referring to the escaped Anti-Shadow Suppression Units. But hopefully, that wouldn't be something Touko needed to know about.

"Hold on, Tsuge…? You mean our boss, right?" Touko blinked.

"Yes... Sousei has been keeping a watchful eye on him for the past few days and even he seems to suspect that something is wrong with the man. The way he avoids the case and brings in unassociated forces to discuss private matters... Bothersome matters, by the way… It feels like he's shifting gears in some sort of concocted plan," Naoto spoke, "And if this is all true… then I know for a fact that he's aware of our suspicion of him. Because of it, I would advise against going to the police station for the next couple of days until we get it sorted out."

Touko was shaking lightly in her spot, eyes staring back and forth between the two Naotos sitting before her. "I'll admit he's changed lately… He stares like a hawk at me every time he walks by, as if waiting for me to do something wrong at any moment. He was always so absorbed in his work before that he never gave two ticks when it came to observing his employees. It's probably why Sousei started talking so much about him, but none of us could have suspected this…"

Naoto closed her eyes, "This isn't the first time that I've witnessed a case where the perpetrator was one of our own detectives from the very beginning. I've learned to think further outside the box than ever before since then," she spoke, recalling the Adachi case once again. Thinking about how this was all related to Shadows and Personas made her realize how similar the two cases had been all along. "Anyways, Tatsumi-kun and I have plans tomorrow… to trace our leads and hopefully come to the end with Tsuge as the perpetrator. I know this is sudden but… I'll have to ask that you let me be excused from school tomorrow. You can tell them that I'm sick, or maybe that I'm having family issues… Something along those li-"

"I'm going with you," Touko replied bluntly, quickly shaking her head. "After telling me all of this? Do you really think I'm going to just sit back and let you handcuff our boss when I have been desperately trying to solve this case, too?"

"Touko… We're going to be dealing with unexplainable, possibly even supernatural powers that could very well put all of us at risk. We can all respect the dangers behind this crime when we realize that Tsuge is essentially dabbling in murder. He's not going to hide his footprints without any aggressive backup plan. No murderer ever does…" Naoto quickly talked her friend down.

"And more reason why you're going to need help…" Touko leered back. "You've already shown me this… this mind creature of yours. How much weirder could it possibly get?"

"The question is, how much more 'dangerous' could it possibly get?" Naoto raised her voice. Not that Kage himself didn't have the full capability to chew off both of their heads at this very moment. He really was just a tamed lion…

"I'm ready for that… For your sake, Naoto, and as your best friend… You're not going to say no to me again."

"…"

As Kage eased the awkward moment by scooping himself another spoonful of yogurt, Naoto slowly hung her head and called Touko a considerable amount of degrading names under her breath. Idiot… Indeed, friends did idiotic things all the time. Why…? Why were friends capable of being so stupid and so wonderful at the same time? Though it was partially Naoto's fault for indulging Touko in all of this information, it was Touko herself who had gotten Shadow Extracted without thinking it through. Unfortunately, Touko was now involved because of it, and there was no refusing her help if she insisted on it. She knew the risks and she had as much experience with firearms and self-defense as Naoto did… So, Naoto had to slowly nod. "You'll be ready in the morning…?"

Touko shrugged and smiled, "It's not like I'll be at the police station tomorrow morning."


	18. Chapter 18 - A

**Animus**

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_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

Long after Touko had left, Naoto had returned to her room and began an awkward back and forth pacing. From her doorway and back towards her bed, Kage's eyes followed Naoto's nervous walking like an audience following a tennis match. It was obvious that Touko's sudden involvement with everything was bothering her, but the worst of it was probably over the fact that Touko was now infected. She, like most people, had no Persona to suppress the haze until it could be removed. Would she really be okay by the time they got her treated…? Tomorrow had already been planned out, so there wouldn't be any time to get her to the Kirijo Labs. Indeed, they had to start tracking down Tsuge now and stop wasting time with other matters.

"She'll be alright… right?" Naoto looked over at Kage.

The little Shadow was laying down contently on her bed, having never felt so mellow in his entire visit here. Thanks to his pleased stomach, he felt like he could finally relax. "Hm…? Oh… Yeah, probably."

"Probably won't cut it…" Naoto sighed, "We need to track down where Tsuge is keeping Kon… if he actually has Kon… and if Kon can actually help… and if he can't… then what will… we… do… Auuh."

"Oh, come on… Don't tell me you doubt everything now. This is your best bet and the only logical answer that we can think of," Kage sat up straight and glared, "You better not be getting cold feet."

"Isn't there anything you can do for her, Kage?" Naoto looked at him with pleading eyes.

He quickly lifted up his hands and shook his head, "What…? No, no, I'm your Persona. Not hers… There's nothing I could possibly do."

Naoto tried to ease her distressed features and joined Kage on her bed, ready to sleep whenever he did. "Then we have to work as fast as possible tomorrow…" she said, "We'll be tracking down all of the nearest Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons and if any one of them gets taken over by their manual override, then Mitsuru will be able to trace them back to the source of their interference. My hope is that we'll find Tetsuma Tsuge on the other end…"

April 23rd, 2013, Tuesday

A droning vibration on Naoto's desk caught her attention long before it was time for anyone to wake up. The blinking of her cellphone signaled an incoming call. Not a text message… no… an actual call. The first thing that Naoto noticed was that it was only 3:30 in the morning. This was no decent hour to be calling anyone… unless it was an emergency.

In response to that, Naoto sluggishly reached for her phone, exhaled with annoyance over being woken up so early, and then answered the call. "Shirogane…" She answered formally, doubting that any friend would be calling her at this hour.

"Shirogane-kun, where is Sousei!?" answered the female voice in the phone. It was an intensely alarmed Mitsuru.

The fact that it was Miss Kirijo was enough to make Naoto immediately sit upright. Kage, too, had been stirred awake by the sudden yelling on the phone.

"He should be outside on the driveway, why?" Naoto questioned.

"Please go check," Mitsuru requested. Naoto was already at her feet and jogging to the other end of the hallway where a window could oversee the front end of the estate. The woman continued to explain, "I got an alarm just thirty minutes ago while I was away from the labs. Sousei's manual override had been activated… In fact, a number of the SSWs were activated the moment I left last night. By the time I got back there and logged onto the servers, they had all been deactivated again. They're out there somewhere, Shirogane-kun…!"

Naoto felt beads of sweat rolling down her forehead as she stared out the front window. Sousei was gone… He was really gone. And as Mitsuru had just revealed, the person controlling the androids was also capable of completely shutting them down. Wherever Sousei had been taken, he was now stuck there…

"If this is Tsuge's doing, then it seems like he's only moving his pawns while I'm not looking. He knows when I'm not… but how can that be?" Mitsuru sounded panicked. "The moment I leave this spot, I assure you that it will happen again…!"

"Someone is watching you… They know your routine and they know when the servers have been shut down for the night. Tell me, has Labrys' manual override been removed?" Naoto questioned.

"Completely… There is no possible way that she could be sending around information. I've removed that function as well," Mitsuru answered.

Naoto's fingers clenched tightly to her cellphone. Kage, curious about everything, poked his head out from the bedroom and tried to understand what the clamor had been about.

"Then can you find out where Sousei is?" Naoto asked.

"No… Not while he's been deactivated. He's giving off no signal to pick up…" Mitsuru sighed, "When he scanned for his brothers and sisters the other day, I'm certain that the only ones he located were those that were active and roaming. Our perpetrator saw that we were sniffing him out and must have changed tactics. Now, the SSWs are being controlled only while the server is down. When it is online, they're being deactivated so that there's no way for me to locate any of them."

"Clever," Naoto closed her eyes with irritation.

"Annoyingly so…"

"I planned on using Sousei today to hunt down and find any nearby SSWs, but now it seems like it wouldn't even matter if I had him. He won't be able to scan for his siblings if they're all offline…"

Mitsuru nodded, "There's only one benefit to this… Only one," she explained, "That while I'm here watching the server, all of the roaming SSWs will be completely immobile. Whatever they're being used for, it won't happen while I'm on watch…"

"But you can't watch it forever…" Naoto frowned, "You need to sleep, and eat…" In fact, the both of them sounded extremely tired. This was no way to start the climax of their investigation… but now there would be no time to rest. "And how can we even advance with all of the androids deactivated…?"

"We can't…" Mitsuru whispered lightly. The conversation went deathly silent for a moment.

Naoto bit her lower lip, "Then I'll have to talk to Tsuge… directly."

"You'll do no such thing," Mitsuru quickly answered, "I smell something dangerous in that man's actions... Plus, we need to make sure that our dots are connected correctly first."

"Then what, we're just waiting again…!? We almost had him! And now… nothing…"

"Please, be calm… I've started doing some tests on the haze that I extracted from both yourself and Tatsumi-kun. I think that from this, I'll definitely be able to pull out some solid proof against Tsuge… There's something about it that definitely bothers me, but I want to double check it first," Mitsuru informed.

"Something that bothers you?"

"… I'll tell you once this is definitive. I'll be staying up for the rest of the night anyways, so I should have a complete analysis of it sometime later today," Mitsuru answered, "For now… Please be safe, and try to get the rest that you deserve."

Naoto winced, slowly walking back towards her bedroom and past Kage, "As if I'm going to be able to sleep now…"

"We're close, Shirogane-kun. Don't think that we've been pushed into any sort of corner... In fact, it could very well be the other way around."

* * *

It didn't seem possible for the situation to get any worse, but within the three remaining hours of the night that Naoto forced herself to sleep through, a terrible ordeal had grabbed the attention of every news station in Japan. A number of people had woken up that morning to discover the disappearance of their spouses, children, and other loved ones. Where they had gone was a complete mystery, but as the various news stations tried to hastily report, at least ten dozen people had suddenly disappeared throughout central Japan. Without rhyme or reason, it had all happened in one night without a single suspect. The only commonality between all of the disappearances was that it was always a case where the victim 'simple didn't return home that night'. For that reason, the city had overturned itself into a panic. Anyone who had a family member that wasn't always around the house suddenly feared the disappearance of their loved one. Therefore, the number of those who actually disappeared and those who were simply out of their homes was constantly fluctuating.

Naoto had this news brought to her attention when Touko Aoi called her the next morning to divulge her in the details, once again waking her up. Unsurprisingly, it was Naoto's first thought that this had something to do with the disappearance of Sousei. He wasn't a human, so there was no reason for him to get kidnapped as if he was one… But at the same time, what if Sousei and the other SSWs were on the other end of this recent crime? Naoto spared no time to tell Touko about her suspicions, and also that she would be without a motorcycle until Sousei returned.

"Then I'm coming over there myself," Touko answered.

The sounds that Naoto heard on her end of the phone made it obvious that Touko had already run out the door and was on her way to the estate. Naoto spoke, "You've known about Sousei being an artificial life form for a long time now… I'm sure you know a few things about the Kirijo Group as well."

"They were the ones that gave him to you, I know… You've got friends in high places and all that," Touko spoke, a small huff in her voice as she made her way to Naoto's.

"That's the facility Tsuge used to work for… I realized I didn't tell you this earlier. But it's our suspicion that he's controlling components of Kirijo technology for some sort of ill business. This… I fear, might be related to everything…" Naoto spoke with pain in her voice. She had been too late…

Perhaps the missing individuals were kidnapped by the SSWs. Mitsuru did say that a number of them had been activated last night while she was gone… And what if the worst had already happened to all of those people? What if they had been killed? Either by the androids or that toxic haze. Anything was possible at this point.

When Naoto heard a knock on her door, she quickly let her friend in and the both of them began jumping to conclusions.

Touko was the first to begin, "I called as many people as I could on this list… The one we populated yesterday," she spoke in a panicked tone, "… Some of the disappearances from last night were students within our own school. Every one that did was, indeed, from this list…"

"Of those that were Shadow Extracted?" Naoto's pupils shrunk.

"You don't think that they… … you know…" Touko made a greatly disturbed face, "… rotted?"

"It hasn't been two months yet…" Naoto spoke, breathing heavily. Then again the two month figure was based on Mitsuru's decade old studies in the Kirijo Labs. What if the variables really had changed? Perhaps even Goro was freshly Shadow Extracted and rotted within just a couple of days. Frustrated, Naoto gripped the sides of her head and sat down, "This is too much…"

"No… There has to be a reason for this. It has to say something…!" Touko urged on. "Over a hundred people went missing last night… Where could they have gone?"

"They disappeared sometime in the middle of the night… Not from their beds, but directly off of the streets," Naoto recollected from the news, "That's what gives me reason to believe that they didn't die from the haze. Otherwise, we would have been seeing some corpses by now… Instead, this sounds more like a mass kidnapping. Specifically, of those who were Shadow Extracted…"

"So, are you saying that Tsuge is the one who kidnapped them…?" Touko asked, "Why would he want them?"

"The gas growing inside them… There may be something valuable about it," Naoto theorized, trying to pull as much sense out of this as she could, "The more of it that grows… the more there is to collect. Yes… He couldn't have done this alone in one night. No man is capable of that… Instead, he must have employed the use of Sousei… and his brothers and sisters…" Naoto slowly looked up, a hint of resolution in her eyes.

"Kirijo technology… huh?" Touko frowned, "So, what's so good about this gas stuff? It sounds like a bioweapon."

"Maybe it is… Maybe that's the point," Naoto nodded, looking at Touko, "And we have someone on our side doing a considerable amount of research on it as we speak. Someone who said that maybe, yes… that this can be traced back to Tsuge…!" Naoto's eyes went wide, "He's acting now… because he knows that we're just hours away from identifying the culprit. She was right; Tsuge is in a corner, not us!"

Touko felt a small grin form on her face, but it was a highly confused one. "You… sound like you just made a breakthrough but… I have no clue of who you're talking about."

"Mitsuru Kirijo…" Naoto answered, "She has the answers in her grasp."

* * *

Naoto remained on standby for the rest of the day at her house, waiting intensely for Mitsuru's call. There could be no progress without her...

However, there wouldn't be any shortage of interesting activity at the estate in the meantime. Touko decided to stick around and Kanji, who expected to ditch school for the day anyways, felt that he should make his way over to the estate as well. The introductions that Naoto stirred between Touko and Kanji were very well received. The two got along famously almost immediately, and Naoto figured that it must have been because of their similarities as both rather strong-voiced tough types. Of course, Touko took the opportunity to poke at Naoto over whether or not the two of them were dating… pretty much every chance that she got. She was almost as bad as Rise Kujikawa.

Though all of their eyes were constantly on the news for the next few hours, there were no major updates on the situation or any possible suspects. Again, the number of those who disappeared last night rose and fell as families panicked and overthought their own situations. Nothing on the TV would be any help at all…

The day carried on tirelessly throughout lunch, and by the time Naoto's phone started to ring, the whole group was almost too worked up to notice it. But it did eventually come to this, and when Naoto took her phone in hand, she lifted it to her ear and thoughtlessly answered, "Please be you, Mitsuru…"

"It is."

Naoto's resulting sigh of relief caused everyone else to exhale. "I'm sure you've heard the news… Even from where you are," Naoto mentioned.

"Yes… and I'm sure that you've come to the same conclusion that I have. I fear that if this recent string of disappearances has anything to do with our case, then the worst of it has just begun," Mitsuru exclaimed.

It was nice to know that everyone was on the same page. Naoto nodded, "I have a few others here… Tatsumi-kun, and my friend Touko… Would it be any bother if I put you on speaker phone?"

Mitsuru went quiet for a moment, "… Considering what I have to say… It may be best if we speak privately, Shirogane-kun. Without Tatsumi, your friend, or… your Shadow."

Naoto slowly nodded, her eyes gazing out to the group of expectant people in the room with her. "Alright…" she said, standing up, "I'll be back soon…"

The sound of each individual person gulping with anticipation could be heard as Naoto made her way up the stairs and towards her bedroom, where she was certain that even her Grandpa wouldn't bother her. Plus, if there was a need for a computer, then she would have one available. Sitting down at the edge of her bed, Naoto rested the phone against her ear and collected Mitsuru's attention again, "I'm alone."

"Thank you… And I'm sorry. I'm sure that you have everyone there because we all have reason to be concerned right now. But, there are a few things that I need to tell you that I would usually mark off as unspeakable and highly confidential… Do you understand?" Mitsuru asked.

"I do…" Naoto answered. This was beginning to sound very familiar… "This is about Tetsuma Tsuge, isn't it?"

"Mm… You're on the ball," Mitsuru answered, "Yes. As you must remember, Tsuge used to work as an employee here at the Kirijo Labs until its reformation. He was fired when we learned about a little… side project… that he and a small handful of other scientists cooperated in. You see, at our labs, we produced Shadows from humans and valued nothing more than the human's lives when it came to safety measures. We couldn't predict how the Shadows would behave, whether or not they would be a threat… so we kept them contained. We restricted them of any freedoms and, as I've told you before, ultimately starved them. You might think that what we did back then was a cruel form of torture but… again, it was for the sake of human safety. There were plenty of us, however, that disagreed with our own methods…"

"And Tsuge was one of them?" Naoto asked.

"Indeed. He and his self-affiliated team of scientists decided to push the boundaries when it came to Shadow research. They wanted to ultimately… raise one. Correctly, as it could have been. They wanted to see what kind of potential Shadows had in terms of human cooperation. Though this all seemed quite harmless, when we saw the results of their private research, we learned how life altering their experiments had been. Indeed, they had extracted a Shadow without permission and hid it within one of the lab's unused storage rooms. And, as expected, its host began to develop that volatile gas that we know so much about now. So, the Shadow started out as all Shadows did… a small, oozing blob with very little sense of self or the world around it. When it grew hungry, the team made a breakthrough discovery… They learned that the Shadow was able to feast harmlessly off of the haze that its host developed. They learned that humans and Shadows could produce a symbiotic relationship with each other outside of the host's mind… The Shadow could feed off of the haze, and in return, the haze wouldn't rot the host's body. Actually… their team was the one that developed the haze vacuuming device that we used the other day. I imagine they used it to collect food for their Shadow."

Naoto's eyes widened slightly. Her assumption that there might have been something valuable about this gas all along had been spot on… So, why would Tsuge need it now? Just thinking about that question gave her the chills.

Mitsuru continued, "So… even though it sounds like they had a good thing going for them, when you think about it, the host essentially became a replenishing food bag… Still, as we read into their research, we saw that their team had developed an unhealthy affection for this creature. They started to believe that maybe… this was the future for humankind and Shadows. That we might actually be able to live cooperatively. But ultimately... you can see that it is our species which is being used for the Shadows benefit. We have no use for them, but they have a use for us. The power shifts in that kind of society would be… unfavorable." Mitsuru closed her eyes as she reminisced, "The creature that they raised, however… developed at a staggering degree under this diet. It eventually developed an ego, a personality, a physical appearance… all of which were based on the likeness of its host. It became what we commonly call now a Shadow Self. Basically, what Kage is to you right now."

"So, what happened to this Shadow?" Naoto asked.

"It was lost during the explosion incident, as were many others… We discovered its existence not too long before the accident and detained it to a secured room where we spent a considerable amount of time deciding whether or not to euthanize it. It was during this time that Tsuge and his group was fired… In the end, it didn't matter so much since we figured this Shadow had died off in the explosion," Mitsuru explained.

Naoto gulped softly and threw forward her theory, "And what if Tsuge found this Shadow again…? What if it never died?"

"… That is what I believe…" she answered softly.

Naoto went silent, standing up on both feet. On the other end, Mitsuru could hear Naoto's heavy breathing as she once again paced back and forth in her room. "Kirijo-san… The people who disappeared last night… Is he… feeding them to his Shadow?"

"His Shadow…?" Mitsuru restated, "No, it was never 'his' Shadow. The one they extracted it from was another man on their team. However, after carefully examining the haze found within both you and Kanji, I learned that the gas from both now and back then can be traced to that very same Shadow…" she spoke, her voice sounding grim. "Indeed, the greatest change in variables between our case decades ago and the case now is that… we physically pulled Shadows from humans. But that's not what's happening anymore… Yet, the same gas has been forming in everyone who came in contact with Shadow Extracting. What I realized is that since nobody is actually having their Shadows pulled from them, their bodies aren't the ones that are actually producing the gas. Instead, their bodies are being infected with an already preconceived gas. One that we thought was lost in that explosion."

"The same one that Tsuge nurtured… And could still be nurturing…" Naoto replied.

"Precisely…" Mitsuru answered softly.

"So all this time, we were after a Shadow…" Naoto sighed, plucking nervously at her dark blue bangs.

Mitsuru sat in silence, waiting for the realization to hit Naoto like a bullet train at full speed. And it did… All at once there was a sudden gasp followed by a slap.

Naoto had covered her mouth with her hand, trying very hard not to scream. This was the realization she had been waiting for, and damn… did it hurt. "It's Kon…! Kon is that Shadow…!"

"Very good," Mitsuru spoke. "I managed to trace that Shadow's… Kon's… ID print within the haze. We found it within you, we found it within Tatsumi-kun… and yes, we even found it within your own Shadow. That cancer that we picked up before within him, it is definitely Kon's doing. I cannot say for certain whether Kage obtained that cancer when he was Shadow Extracted or if he's always had it, but I have finally been able to link all of the four major dots together," she said, and began to list them off one by one, "The haze belongs to Kon, and Kon's true Shadow identity is the cancer Amatsu Mikaboshi, who is ultimately the Shadow of Tsuge's lab partner, Makoto Nakamura."

"… Say that name again?" Naoto requested.

"Makoto Nakamura?" Mitsuru replied inquisitively, but she would receive no answers after that. All she could hear was the sudden, loud thud of the cellphone dropping to the floor and an even greater mass following after it. She blinked, "Shirogane…? Did you drop your phone? … … Hey, are you there? Shirogane-kun…? Hey, please, answer…!"


	19. Chapter 19 - S

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

"Nn…" Naoto's head twitched to one side when she felt a damp, cold surface pressing against her cheeks and forehead. There was a small clamor of people giving off relieved sighs all around her, and Naoto slowly realized why. She had passed out in the middle of her room without warning. Whether it was because of her lack of sleep the night before or Mitsuru's startling discovery, it didn't really matter… Her brain had conked itself out from the sheer intensity of everything, and now here she was lying flat on the floor with a cold cloth against her face. When she was finally able to open her eyes, Naoto realized that everyone was there beside her. Kanji, Kage, Touko, Grandpa… even Mitsuru's webcam had been accessed on the computer.

"Y'okay…? You had us scared shitless…" Kanji spoke lightly.

Naoto closed her eyes again and lifted a hand to the wet cloth, pressing it against her aching forehead, "Did I just… drop?"

"You did…" Mitsuru answered from the computer, "Thankfully loud enough for the others to quickly notice. They were up here in less than fifteen seconds. There was no heart failure or issues with your breathing so… we just tried to make you feel as comfortable as possible. And… I'm sorry…" Mitsuru whispered, "… I've been confiding so much in you lately… it's not fair to you, how stressful this must all be…"

"I can handle all the information… but… it was just something that you said…" Naoto winced, trying to recall it. When the name that Mitsuru spoke of returned to her, she sighed, "Ah… right."

"Ain't any reason to worry about it now…" Kanji spoke, pushing his arms under Naoto in order to lift her up off the floor. Now that she was awake, it was clear that she wasn't injured badly and could now be safely moved. "You're not going anywhere tonight, missy," he spoke, setting her down on her bed.

Naoto turned her gaze to everyone, clearly reading all the worry in their faces. "Yeah, I know…" she answered reassuringly. "But… can I ask just one thing of you, Touko…?"

Her friend looked up and quickly nodded, "Anything… What do you need?"

"Can you… give the police station a call and ask if Tsuge is in? I don't want to speak to him… but… we need to know if he's been in the office at all today."

Touko nodded nervously, reaching for her side pocket where she kept her own cell. Pulling it out, she opened her address book and searched for the Yagokoro City Police Station, and called.

"… … Yes, hello? This is Touko Aoi… I'm just calling to confirm whether or not Tetsuma Tsuge was in the office at all today, or if he was out on duty. … … … … Out? … Because of the incident today? Ah, I see… Yes, I'm sure it's been a hectic day. Thank you… Yes… Alright, have a good evening," Touko rephrased everything that was essential out loud and soon enough Naoto had her answer. "He usually doesn't go out…" Touko reminded.

Naoto nodded to herself. "Then… if my suspicions are correct, he was too busy dealing with his own crimes to leave any time for work. I'm sure it is difficult when you're accommodating over ten dozen kidnapped victims…"

Touko gulped softly, "This whole thing against Tsuge sounded really farfetched to begin with but… I hate to say that it might actually be making a bit of sense… But why would he do this?"

Naoto's eyes slowly stared over at her computer screen where she saw Mitsuru intensely gazing back at her. "I can't say…" Naoto admitted, "My guess is revenge, but over what…? I cannot actually say…"

* * *

A short deal of time had passed since they made that clarification with the police station. Grandpa had already left the room, simply glad that his grandchild wasn't in any harm. Mitsuru had logged off for the night and promised that she would camp out at the labs until the perpetrator was found. She kept the SSW server running and made herself cozy in the room. Even if she fell asleep, she would be alarmed the moment any activity was found. Touko was, thankfully, just a few blocks away from the Shirogane estate and promised that she would be back on the double if there were any problems. Kanji, however, had the longest trip to take back to his place… and though he had his own ride, it was already terribly late. When the room was left with no one else but Naoto, Kanji, and Kage curled up at the foot of her bed, he started to realize that it was probably time for him to leave as well.

"So… I guess, like-wise with Touko… if you need me at all, you can just call," Kanji spoke as he grabbed together his things.

Kage opened one eye from his spot on the bed and frowned, never too happy to see Kanji leave.

Naoto, on the other hand, reached out and pulled in Kanji's arm when he got close enough to do so, staring up with concerned eyes. Considering what had happened the night before, it was difficult letting him go. In fact, she didn't want to… "Please, stay the night…"

"Euh?" he looked back with widened eyes.

"Even with Mitsuru watching over the server… it might not be safe out. I… don't want you to go anywhere tonight," she admitted with a frown.

Kanji turned towards her and nodded softly, "Well, that's okay and all… if it's alright with your Grandpa, too. Then I guess I'm taking the other room again…?" He didn't exactly want to remember what had happened in that room the last time, but Naoto did make a good point. Anything was better than being outside on a night like this one.

Naoto looked away, "If that's where you'd prefer… It doesn't really matter. … … Anywhere is fine."

"… Anywhere?" he repeated after her, and then mentally punched himself after saying it. He realized how intrusive it must have sounded…

"Even here…" she confirmed with him.

Kanji struggled to catch his breath. No… she wasn't actually saying that, was she? He must have been misinterpreting her. No, Naoto definitely didn't just invite him to sleep in her own bedroom. After all, the bed could barely fit two people to begin with…! He could sleep on the floor… That sounded at least somewhat acceptable. Still, dumbstruck by her choice of words, Kanji took a moment to realize that Kage had jumped up and clung tightly to his waist.

"Kanji-kun can sleep with us!" he chirped delightfully.

"G-geez… you mean on the floor, right?" Kanji stared, awestruck as he pointed to the ground.

"No- I mean…" Naoto blinked as she turned her gaze to the little Shadow, "I'm sorry, Kage… Perhaps you should take the other room tonight."

"Ooooooohhhhh," Kage prolonged his understanding, eyebrows wiggling playfully. "I see how it is."

Kanji's jaw hung slightly, "Naoto… Are you alright? I mean, it sounds like you might have hit your head a little hard or something…"

She looked back to him with a confused look, "We're in a relationship, are we not…?"

"But there's an order to these things…!" he exclaimed in a raised voice.

Not only that, but it was a very awkward relationship too. It had already been five days since they had confessed some sort of interest in each other, but neither of them had yet to get all excited over the fact that they might actually be in love. 'Might' was the key word here… And as far as both them were concerned, they still felt like nothing more than good friends to each other. The way Naoto was trying to push things forwards… it was if neither of them really knew what to do. At least Kage had the right mindset. He left the room the moment he realized that these two had a lot that they needed to sort out. Alone.

"You can't sleep by me…?" she asked, shoulders falling.

"We can't-… I mean, we shouldn't… you know," Kanji tried to make hand motions in order to get his message across without outright saying it. "… Do the horizontal skin slap."

"The what?" Naoto lifted an eyebrow. Unfortunately, her dauntingly large vocabulary never made way for any slang. Especially vulgar slang.

"The… you know, I don't… I mean… we… damnit, Naoto. We ain't havin' sex, alright?" he blurted out.

Naoto quickly reeled back, "Did I say we were…!?" As she spoke, her tone of voice sounded somewhat irritated, but at the same time, she realized that it was probably her fault for tipping him off like that. "Tatsumi-kun… I… just want you here for the comfort. Nothing more than that… Because… I'm terribly nervous tonight. There are a number of things that I wish I had never known about this case and no matter how much of a clingy miscreant he is at night, Kage's hugs… never really mean anything. It would really mean a lot to me if we could simply-"

When she looked up again, she saw Kanji's arms reaching around her, bringing her closer to his torso as he set himself down against the bed. Sighing, Naoto set her head against the surface of his chest. Bringing her arms around as well, she invited him into a full embrace, allowing him space on the bed where he could lay down next to her.

"You're too damn innocent…" he whispered, fingers combing into the strands of hair behind her head.

Naoto smiled lightly, "And you're never straightforward when you speak…"

"Oh?" he looked down, grinning at her. "At least I can say my own name properly."

Naoto blinked. He was challenging her strictly formal way of speaking… as usual. She bit her lower lip, "Kanji…. …. kun?" she tried.

Giving off a soft laugh, he nodded and hugged her a little closer. No, there didn't need to be anything more than this. This was… quite perfect.

"… I love you," Naoto added on, as if she had been continuing a thought from her previous sentence.

There it was… that fluttery heartthrob that Kanji had been waiting for this whole time. Maybe she was starting to feel it now too… Considering how difficult it was to read Naoto expressions when it came to affection, the most Kanji could have right now was her word. And she had said it… "… Love you too…" Kanji whispered back.

The night continued on with puppy love in the air, a very simple infatuation that kept their embrace warm… their hearts singing… and at times, their lips connected. The point at which they had broken through to the first kiss was a mystery for the both of them since they were completely lost in the tenderness of the moment. When the lights had gone out, all they could do was feel and hear the curious advancements that each made on the other. It was he who had first set his lips against her skin, though. Just as gently as ever, it was nothing more than a soft kiss to her forehead. But that alone was enough to catch Naoto's attention, and she responded similarly with a kiss against his jawline. Even though it shouldn't have mattered with both of them laying side by side, their difference in height was as clear as always. So, gradually and delicately, Kanji shuffled downwards and Naoto looked up until they were able to reach each other's cheeks with their impulsive trail of kisses. Blindly, they crossed their paths and felt the petal soft skin of their lips meet, pausing once they had found each other.

There were no words for the moment. Just the sound of each other's shuddered breathing as they confirmed that everything up to this point had been okay. Then, with little hesitation, they drowned in each other's warm kiss, savoring every little touch and the sweetness of their taste. The only time that they had to see each other's faces was when a sudden streak of lightning illuminated the outside and shone in through the window. It was a brief moment that caught both of them by surprise, their eyes going wide and then relaxing again once it passed. As they paused to catch their breath, they chuckled softly at the irony of the moment. However, as they continued to listen, they noticed the sound of trickling rain as it began to tap in a faltered rhythm against the glass window. Not long after, the wind picked up and the weather grew into a stronger storm. Huddled close against Kanji, Naoto closed her eyes and allowed him one more soft kiss before going silent, insisting that now would be a good time to catch up on the sleep that they both needed. Or at least, as much as they could get…

As the clocks ticked into the late hours of the night, the wispy storm continued steadily on its trail. Though the rain was strong, the soft sounds that it made as it tickled the roof of the estate were enough to lull the two into a deep sleep.

April 24th 2013, Wednesday

Naoto should have expected the call that Mitsuru made in the morning, but she and Kanji were still caught by surprise. And though they had been woken up long before dawn, they had fallen asleep early enough to still consider their rest a good one.

"Dejavu…" Naoto murmured as she clamored across Kanji's front in order to reach for the phone, picking it up, "Good morning?"

"A very good morning…!" Mitsuru spoke back, her voice full of vitality even though there was a good chance that she had stayed up the entire night watching the server. Comparatively, Naoto was extremely groggy… but soon enough, she would be awake and Mitsuru would be the hopelessly tired one. The older woman continued, "I've got it...! The location of our interception, the building, maps to get there, you name it. We've got our perpetrator pinned, Shirogane-kun!"

Naoto's eyes went wide, "But how…!? They must know that you're watching the server… Why would they activate the SSWs now, knowing full well that they'd get caught if they do?"

"Are you calling this a trap?" Mitsuru answered back, "Because I'd rather call it desperation. Almost all of the SSWs are on the move at this very moment, most of which are localizing at the point of their interference. They're all gathering together there… and I worry that they might have gone on another kidnapping spree."

Naoto sat upright again, no longer flopped along Kanji. Not that he had minded it. "Where are they heading?" she questioned, "… And where is Sousei?"

"It's a building near the highway at the Tsukamaki Intersection. I'll be forwarding you some maps and the address, if you can make the time to log on," Mitsuru instructed, "… As for Sousei, he's already along the highway itself. He's heading away from the building though, despite where all the other seem to be going…"

"That's very close to the police station… Is he heading north or south? We'll have to cut him off," she spoke, sliding off of the bed and turning on her computer. At the same time, she looked to Kanji and she could tell that he was having a difficult time keeping his eyes open. Naoto was used to forcing herself awake like this considering her line of work. Kanji… not so much. "We would have to leave now…" she whispered to him.

"Shit… I'unno if I can safely drive this soon…" he spoke, finally sitting up, "I'm yawnin' every 10 seconds…"

Listening to Mitsuru's directions on the phone and following the maps on her computer, Naoto quickly got an idea of where they had to go. "You got here on a motorcycle, didn't you? You said you had your own license… So, if it's anything like Sousei, I'm sure I can drive us," she suggested.

"It's… kind of a scooter…" Kanji admitted, head lowering. "But… it can seat two people?"

Naoto cupped a hand over the phone and darted her eyes towards Kanji, "I let you drive Sousei and all you had was a scooter license…!? … Remind me to arrest you later."

"Yes, ma'am," Kanji frowned.

"Alright, I'm heading towards the highway from my place. Let us know if he changes course," Naoto spoke back into the phone, already throwing on her coat and running out of the room.

"Damnit, damnit," Kanji collected himself and tried to catch up. This woman was impossible to keep up with sometimes… Thankfully, he already had all of his things in one place. And as he made his way out into the hallway and down the front stairs, he passed by Kage who had his head poked out from the guest room's doorway.

"What's going on…?" Kage asked curiously, following down the stairs.

Naoto lifted a hand and stopped all of them at the door, "Stay, Kage. We're leaving to find Sousei," she ordered, "And you'll be staying here where it's safe."

Kage puffed out his cheeks, "It's raining anyways… I don't like the rain," he mentioned, hiding partly behind Kanji, "You're both going to come back safely, right…?"

"We will… Try to not worry too much about us," Naoto answered to her Shadow, her hand resting against a solid object at her side's belt. Though it was hidden under her coat, Kanji could tell that Naoto was armed incase the situation got heavy.

Unfortunately, the rain didn't seem like it was going to let up anytime soon, either. There was only so much bundling up that the two of them could do since the chilly morning breeze was going to make the raindrops feel like icicles against their faces as they drove. The slippery roads wouldn't be any help either, but Naoto was exceptionally skilled in any sort of weather. In fact, as they mounted the scooter together, Naoto recalled that the storm tonight was strikingly similar to the one that she had found Kanji in during the gang assault. It was hard to believe that it had barely been three weeks since then. Quickly learning the controls and verifying some other questions about the scooter with Kanji, she proceeded to drive down towards the highway. Though the conditions outside were harsh, she wanted to make sure that they had ample time to catch Sousei.

When Naoto finally pulled onto the highway, both she and Kanji sighed with relief when they saw that the early morning traffic jams had not started yet. In fact, the roads were pretty clear. As well, the darkness of the sky before them made it easy to see the lights of small aircrafts blinking through the soaking downpour. When Naoto began to notice them, she wondered how many of them were actually aircrafts, or stars… or something else entirely. After a short distance towards their destination, Naoto also began to notice that the oncoming traffic on the other side of the highway was starting to slow down considerably. Eventually, the cars all came to a screeching stop, some more than others. Kanji was curiously turning his head from side to side, trying to understand where the interruption in their driving had come from. They all had room to move… but no, they had simply stopped.

"I don't like this…" Kanji spoke out pointlessly, knowing that Naoto couldn't hear him in this torrent. However, a different sound eventually rang in both of their ears. It was a quiet rumble that reverberated from behind them, starting low, but it very quickly picked up in volume. Kanji grabbed Naoto's shoulder with one hand, the edge of his seat with another, and stared behind as far as he could see. The oncoming sound began to pierce his ears like the burners of a jet. "Shit… shit shit…! To the left, go! Get off the road!" he yelled sharply at Naoto, hitting his hand down on her left shoulder.

Quickly reacting, Naoto turned them onto the roadside and halted the scooter, planting her foot down onto the ground. With a hand gripped at her gun, she watched as an android flew past them at an alarming speed, catching many drivers off guard as it sailed over their roofs. It was heading in the same direction that they were going… and this one definitely didn't look like Sousei. "I doubt that's the only one heading that way… But Sousei should be heading in our direction," Naoto shook some of the rain out of her hair and glared, "Why are they acting out in the open like this…!? Everyone just saw that…!"

"Maybe they don't have a choice…" Kanji suggested, staring down the bend of the highway. "If Mitsuru ain't called us yet, then Sousei should end up here soon."

The cars on the road were beginning to panic on both sides. What they had all just seen was completely unexplainable and obviously something quite dangerous looking. So, as the android passed, the mass of cars on the road began to speed and swerve to get out of the area. Even the more passive drivers were forced to hightail it in order to keep with the flow of the road. Now not only did Kanji and Naoto have to deal with a collective of escaped androids, they also had to deal with the public's reaction to all of this as well. And it wasn't a positive one.

"We should keep off of the road if we know what's good for us," Naoto suggested, noticing that a few other cars were thinking the same thing, "Just keep your eye out for Sousei. Since we're stopped anyways, I'm going to call Mitsuru and confirm that he's still on this route."

"That won't be necessary…" Kanji announced, gripping the edge of his seat tensely. He could already see something in the distance.

The flow of cars on the oncoming side of the highway suddenly picked up in pace, honking and rushing to escape whatever was coming their way. It wasn't long before the reason behind all of it became clear. Gliding on a set of wheels was another android, a surprisingly small one. However, it travelled at speeds that could impale a car down the center if it so wished and the trail of its afterburners left a singed line on the road. Though it looked remarkably similar, it was obvious that this wasn't Sousei. It appeared to be young, female, and although she was only partially transformed, she was shaped similarly to a model scooter.

"Is that Ai…?" Naoto squinted. She had only a brief moment to confirm it until the little android flew into direct view, doing a U-turn once she bypassed the two people below her. Naoto's guess had been correct. Holding out her gun, she stared up at the blonde android child and shook her head, "But we were supposed to find Sousei here…"

Taking note of the gun being pointed at her, Ai lifted her arm and did just the same, letting it reassemble into a not-so-mini minigun. Keeping it and herself lifted off the ground on feet jets, Ai directed the firing end of her gun towards Kanji and Naoto.

Naoto's hands immediately shook. She had hoped that in this rain, any bullet holes to an android's hull would be lethal in this kind of weather. But with an unmistakably more impressive weapon being pointed not just at her, but Kanji as well… there was little desire for either of them to move, let alone fire. If Naoto made any attempt to, then Ai's lightning fast reflexes would probably take the both of them out at the same time. They remained silent and paralyzed, both knowing that they were probably thinking the same thing. They could have planned this out better…

Then, it happened so fast that both Kanji and Naoto were struck with prolonged confusion. Something out of the blue had silently launched itself towards Ai, grappling and disarming her weapon from her shoulder before she could even fight back. The two forms fell to the ground, one being Ai who was now struggling under the weight of a large, masked individual. His white coat was lined with clasps and buttons, and from his shoulders extended two metal protrusions that were nearly as tall as he was. In one hand, he tossed away the dismembered limb of Ai, the metal of the gun colliding with the pavement. In the other, he held on tight to a massive katana, its handle encircled by a golden halo. With the blade drawn and pointed at Ai, the small android struggled and whined underneath him.

Both Kanji and Naoto were taken aback by the creature, their eyes wide and unable to believe what they were seeing in front of them.

"T-that can't be…" Naoto spoke with a rare stutter in her voice, "Is that… Izanagi?"

Kanji's head slowly shook, "That's more than just Izanagi…"

Moments later, following in the same direction that the God-like Persona had flown in from, came a group of motorcycles. About five or six of them, their headlights shone against Kanji and Naoto who had their backs pressed against the rail that split the highway.

"Yoooooo!" called out a familiar voice from one of the motorcycles. A few others honked their horns in recognition.

"That's definitely more than just Izanagi…!" Naoto stood up straight with relief in her voice. The entire Investigation Team had made it, and at the spearhead of the group was the young man who had most likely summoned the great creature before them: Yu Narukami.


	20. Chapter 20 - E

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

The introductions that everyone wanted to share when they drove up had to be cut short. The stalwart evolution of Yu's Persona, Izanagi-no-Okami, was still in a heated struggle to keep Ai pinned to the ground. The appearance of both he and the Investigation Team had been a rather unexpected surprise.

"How…" Naoto frowned, "How could your Persona possibly be here…? And even more, why did Ai show up instead of Sousei?"

"Sousei?" Yosuke dropped down from his motorcycle after parking it at the side of the road, "We've been trailing Ai here ever since she up and ran away a few hours ago. The day before, she wasn't even moving… So, y'know, we kind of freaked out when she reactivated and started going nuts in Inaba."

"Wadda'ya mean she went nuts?" Kanji pressed on.

The others followed after on their bikes, getting off the road so that the traffic could keep moving. However, since they were already near an intersection, most of the traffic was clearing up as cars took alternate routes off the highway. The biggest blockade was the massive Persona-android pile in the middle of the road. And as each person dismounted from their bike, they watched as Yu regrettably ordered Izanagi-no-Okami to deal a paralyzing blow to the girl. The deity's body glowed for a brief moment as a charge of electricity escaped between his hands, rendering Ai immobile.

The rest of the team lowered their heads, and Rise spoke up, "The one who caught her first was Yukiko… Somehow she had snuck into the Amagi Inn. When Yukiko woke up, Ai's hand was cupped over her mouth, and in surprise, Yukiko pushed her away. Then, without warning, Ai just suddenly charged out of the room through the window."

Yukiko nodded, watching as Izanagi-no-Okami scooped up the little girl and brought her over to the roadside. As he set her down, Yu lifted a hand to the Persona and recalled him, the deity disappearing in a blue ethereal glow. "That's right, I don't know what she was trying to do…" Yukiko spoke up, "But it scared me, and I felt terribly ill not long after. I quickly called everyone else and we were all experiencing similar symptoms. So, even though it was past midnight, we all gathered together and discussed what had just happened."

"We knew something was wrong since Ai had never acted like that before. And would you believe it? On our way to find Ai, we found this guy," Yosuke spoke excitedly, patting Yu on the backside a few times.

"My Persona…" Yu spoke out, eyes closed, "He appeared to me again just last night. For some reason, I was able to call upon him in this world. Something had changed in me then, but I don't understand what could have happened…"

"We all felt it, though…" Chie added on, "When we found Yu, we realized that the situation was the same for all of us. For some reason, on this night, we've all been able to summon our Personas. And at the same time, with Ai suddenly going haywire on us, we feared that it might be related."

"What about you?" Teddie jumped forwards, standing awkwardly close to Kanji, "Have either of you been able to summon them?"

Kanji slowly shook his head, "Uh… No? If I had that sort of power, I would have done some sort of shit when Ai showed up," he remarked, "I ain't feeling sick or nothing either."

Naoto sighed, "I can't relate to any of that either… Plus, my Persona isn't exactly summonable at the moment." She quickly looked up when she realized that fact, "Kage…! No… Nothing was different about him when we left… right?"

Kanji shook his head, "No, nothing…"

"But Sousei wasn't here either…" she added on, realizing that nothing was going according to plan at all. Sensing that there must have been a mistake, Naoto took out her phone and decided to finally make that call to Mitsuru. "This is bothering me a lot…" she whispered, listening as the phone had to ring just twice before Mitsuru was on the other end. "Mitsuru, we've located Ai at the intersection you directed us to. Where is Sousei?"

Mitsuru's pause made it obvious that she was perplexed, "That can't be right…? I'm seeing right here that Sousei should be exactly where you are. There are no other recognized androids in the immediate area."

"But… Ai…" Naoto blinked, staring down at the busted up robot girl before them, "… Mitsuru, where is Ai right now?"

"Well, as you said…" Mitsuru could be heard typing specifications onto the monitoring system. When she hit the enter key, a great inhale could be heard, "She's moving… very fast."

"How…? Where?" Naoto shook her head. That was impossible, Ai was laying right here before all of them…

"In the same direction that you just came from," Mitsuru answered, "I fear she's making a beeline towards your street, possibly even your house, Shirogane-kun. Or at least, whoever is using her GPS…"

It all made sense now. Naoto reached for the scooter and motioned Kanji to get back on as well, wanting to waste no time. "If Ai is here under the guise of Sousei, then they must have swapped tracking signals at some point. The one heading towards the estate isn't Ai, it must be Kurogami-san…!"

The speed at which the entire group had reassembled onto their motorcycles and made haste down the highway was quick and unbarred by any sense of proper driving etiquette. Not a single car on the road wasn't speeding at the moment, anyways. Before they made their leave, however, Chie had lifted a hand before her and summoned her heavily armored Persona, Suzuka Gongen. The female bandit was clad in dark tights and despite her flowing platinum hair, she was the stealthiest out of everyone's Personas. Of course, that wasn't saying much when you considered Susanoo's fireball afro and Amaterasu's glowing body. Hiding within the long shadows of dawn, Suzuka followed the group down the highway with Ai held carefully in her arms. Neither of them would be easily seen, but since the advancement of the androids had started, there had already been an excess of police cars and search helicopters dispatched throughout the city. Almost every citizen was awoken by the clamor, none of which expected to get back to sleep anytime soon.

* * *

Since he too had been woken up prematurely, Kage decided that he wouldn't be going back to sleep either. The loyal Shadow also wanted to stay up and make sure that Naoto and Kanji made it back safely. However, with both of them gone, Kage realized that now would probably be a good time to catch up on his online gaming to pass the time. After grabbing a little yogurt snack from the fridge, he walked back up to Naoto's room and sat down on the computer chair, spinning in it a few times as he enjoyed his breakfast.

"The mighty Player 1 will fall to my wrath today!" Kage cackled, setting his hands down hard on the computer desk. He realized shortly after that the computer was still on and he curiously checked over the last few pages that Naoto had accessed. There was the map leading to the highway and the chat client that she always used to connect with Mitsuru, but the older woman obviously wasn't on right now. She was probably still on duty, surveying over the androids. Kage stared at the map for a moment, feeling his hands going tense. "… They'll be okay," he whispered to himself, and re-opened his favorite game that he had bookmarked.

Within his intense self-destructive style of playing, Kage lost his focus for the world around him. Within just fifteen minutes of playing, he was already completely absorbed into the game and didn't even realize it when someone suddenly entered the front door of the estate. However, as the sound of thick mechanical legs stepped up the stairs to the second floor, Kage lifted his head and eventually took notice.

"Hmn? Back already?" Kage called out.

He received no verbal response. The one who had entered the house was Sousei, and he further invited himself into Naoto's bedroom, walking in with small pooling puddles of rainwater at his feet.

"Geez, you're soaked…" Kage mentioned, turning on his seat towards the android. The moment he stopped paying attention to his game, the retro sound of another Player 1 death was heard. "Are the others back too? They just left to go find you…"

Sousei looked up, his eyes focusing on the other boy who was just a little less mechanical than he was. His expression was completely stoic, and he didn't seem inclined to talk. Though it was unnecessary for him to do so, the distressed rise and fall of his body indicated deep, exhausted breathing. Sousei simply stared, his dark grey hair dripping beads of water and his hands clenching together as fists.

"Is that a no?" Kage frowned. Standing up, he started to walk towards the doorway, "Still, water isn't good for either of us. Let me go get you a towel so you can-"

Sousei's hand quickly rose up and his arm blocked Kage's line of walking. His eyes watched him, staring more intensely than before. As the Shadow hobbled back a little bit from surprise, Sousei stepped forwards, gradually pinning the smaller boy into a corner of the room.

"C-come on, Wheels. This isn't funny," Kage whined, "Why are you acting like this?"

Finally giving him an answer, Sousei reached forwards and grabbed at the collar of Kage's lab coat and teal blue shirt, lifting him up off the ground with a single balled fist. Bringing the Shadow up to his level, Sousei's ruddy coloured eyes leered at him with fascination, "Why are you…?" he spoke in a voice that wasn't his own.

Kage immediately chimed in and recognized the voice, his body tensing up as he hovered off the ground, "Kon…!" he squeaked out, feeling his breath going short with Sousei's fist squeezing at his collar.

"Thinking you could fit into this world… How naïve are you, really?" the youthful voice spoke out, "Is this what I brought you into this world for…? To play at equals with this… so called… family of yours? You know very well where a story like that will lead you…"

Kage's hands gripped at Sousei's arms, trying to pull himself either up or away from the android that held him in place. "I don't know who you are… but you obviously know nothing of… family…" he winced, shaking his head, "They've made me… happy…!"

"Happy…!" Sousei spoke out, a wiry grin stretching across his features, "This… Is this happy? Is this what it means? Please… indulge me in this very whimsical feeling that you've discovered for yourself," he mocked, a free hand pointing at the smile on his face. "You said it to grandpa once before… Shadows only feel two things, hunger and hatred. You must think you're quite special, quite different… But you know very well that this world doesn't want you. Stay here any longer, and I promise… it will tear you limb from limb. No-" he paused, "You… will tear yourself limb from limb. Starved and angry… unless you do something about it…"

Kage shook and his pupils dilated as he saw Sousei's other hand reach for his face, his thumb and index fingers gripping tightest against his jawline. "Stop it…!" Kage tried to shake his head, but he was locked in one spot with Sousei's digits pressing painfully into his cheeks. The moment Kage tried to relieve the tension against his teeth by opening his jaw, he felt Sousei's fingers take the opportunity to plunge inside his mouth. Muffled and whining, the cyborg choked a few times, feeling Sousei's fingers scrape against the roof of his mouth.

Yanking back and out, Sousei grabbed the hidden USB line that Kage had concealed and unraveled it between his fingers, "My, my… What could this be?"

Kage gasped roughly, eyes wide with surprise. "How… do you know… about any of this?" he panted.

Sousei leaned in closer, "If you want to live… you're going to do everything I say…" he whispered.

Before Kage had any time to resist the android's advancements, he felt a spark surge through the tip of the USB and as it travelled throughout his system, he immediately lost all control of his body. His tense limbs went limp and the searing pain in his mouth disappeared. The sudden switch from conscious thoughts to mindless ones was bewildering, but the most puzzling feeling of all was that he still felt awake and aware. He could see what was happening... but he couldn't feel or respond in anyway when Sousei dropped his body to the floor and pulled out the USB cord even further. Though half of him wanted to scream and resist, there was an odd, alternate feeling within him that showed excitement when the cord was gripped and introduced back into Naoto's PC like it was originally used for. The result this time was not the usual fifteen minutes of online mealtime that Kage typically hoped for. Instead, his awareness was shot. Whatever was left of his mind… his memories… his body. All of it was suddenly distorted and lost, absorbed into whatever plain of consciousness his electronic mind had decided to travel to. All that remained for him was a very abstract sense of self that recompiled and resurfaced far, far away from where he was supposed to be.

Timing had been everything. Maybe if the Investigation Team had arrived ten, maybe even five minutes sooner, such a tragedy could have been avoided. The first to reenter the room was Naoto, who shouted with dismay when she saw both her Shadow and android unconscious on the bedroom floor. Sousei had dropped at some point and was still in the process of rebooting his own systems in order to snap back to his own self. The first thing he saw when his eyelids blinked back open was Naoto, feverishly trying to awaken her Shadow who lay without breath on the floor before them. When his audio sensors reactivated, he heard Kanji yelling out that 'Sousei is back'. The android turned his head towards Kanji. Confused and dazed, he had absolutely no recollection of how he had gotten into this situation. "I was cut off…" Sousei whispered, "I saw nothing… I know nothing of what just happened…"

The room remained silent, all eyes on Naoto as her hand found the USB cord connecting her Shadow to the computer. It was the first time she had seen this kind of device being used, and she would receive no explanation for why Kage had one. Slowly reaching towards the male end of the connector, she disconnected Kage from the PC and stared down at him, shaking his shoulder a few times. When that didn't stir him, she rolled him onto his backside and attempted CPR and a few compressions. She was aware enough of her Shadow to know that he had lungs and a heart, but he wasn't breathing nor did he have any pulse. That would be her last attempt at reviving him, however. … Nothing else worked.

Kanji kneeled at her side and put a hand on her shoulder, staring down at Kage. Though he bit his lower lip hard, he tried to speak, "… Maybe he's back within you…?"

Naoto shook her head, her eyes tightly closed and holding back her welling tears, "I don't sense him… Not within me, and not here either…" she stuttered. It was a reality she didn't want to think of, but still, she had to question it, "… Do Shadows die…?"

The rest of the Investigation Team remained silent, some filtering back out into the hallway to avoid the grieving sight and to provide some space within the room. No one had an answer to her question.

Finally letting a few stray tears drop, Naoto shook her head and placed a hand against Kage's cheek. It was then that she noticed an odd consistency in his skin. He had gone cold very fast, and the texture of his skin itself had gone silky. Naoto had to quickly withdraw her hand when she felt her fingers slipping through his cheek, the entire surface of his body breaking down into pitch black slime. When nothing else of his human-like body remained, the gooey mass itself began to also dissolve into nothing until there were no traces of him left. Just as his body had appeared in this world without reason, it too disappeared the same way. And then there was silence, nothing more than the faltered hiccups of Naoto as she tried to cope with what had just happened.

_Ding_

A sound chimed from above them, catching everyone who heard it by surprise. They all immediately realized that the sound had come from the computer's speakers.

"What's that?" Chie prompted, pointing at something on the computer screen.

Recognizing the sound as a typical error beep from her PC, Naoto brought herself to her feet and wiped her eyes. Why would the computer suddenly have an error without her input? She hadn't touched the PC in some time… but it looked like someone else had.

"His favorite game…" Naoto blinked, stepping towards the computer screen. There was a GAME OVER screen within the web browser, but the error message wasn't coming from that. In fact, just moments after the first one happened did another error beep ring out. Following it was a small tab that appeared in her taskbar, an error log of sorts. Taking the mouse in hand, Naoto clicked the tab to open it and found a growing list of errors that didn't make any bit of sense. Something was running on her computer without permission… and though it was making progress, her computer had no other way of communicating exactly what it was doing.

"What's it say?" Kanji stepped forwards, trying to read the error log. It wasn't terribly cryptic, thankfully…

"There's a file that's being damaged… it keeps trying to revert to a 'previously stable backup'," Naoto explained, reading it through, "Error #131 file corrupt… Program, C:\Program Data\ … File, … Press OK to terminate application…" she was already shaking her head. She had no intention of stopping this program from running its course.

"Do you recognize it?" he asked further.

"I do…" Naoto spoke, allowing the error log to fill up. Deciding to trace the unrecognized file back to its roots, she opened its program folder and found the single file, along with the which continued to fluctuate between existence and self-termination with every error beep. Reviewing the folder under the Details tab, Naoto watched as the most bizarre and unexplainable thing happened to the original .EXE file. With every error… not only did the disappear and reappear, the .EXE was making changes to its 'Date modified' information. It was jumping from April 24th, to the 23rd… and then the 20th… the 10th… With every error, it jumped back an exponentially greater amount of days until the errors halted and the file stabilized at February 10th, 2013. The computer went silent.

Kanji stared bug-eyed at the computer screen, his shoulders falling, "You… had this thing on your computer that long ago?"

"No…" Naoto slowly shook her head, "This is the first time I've ever seen it…"

"But you said you recognized it?" Yosuke spoke up from behind them.

Naoto stared over her shoulder at the rest of the group, "I recognized the name… Mikaboshi. And I know Sousei does, too…" she said, staring down at the android who also looked up at the computer with extreme fascination. Naoto lid her eyes, "Kage must have created this file… but there's no way he was here over two months ago in February. This is simply a number… the computer has to be confused."

Chie shook her head, "Even if it's just a number, we just saw him hooked up to the computer. Maybe he's trying to tell us something…"

Before Naoto could nod in agreement, the group was once again interrupted by another error beep, followed by the sudden disappearance of the program folder that the file was in. Bewildered, Naoto did a search for it again, but nothing came up. Whatever the program had done, it had completed its job and finished with another self-termination. "February 10th… I know that date must be important. Specifically because it was over two months ago…" Naoto spoke, "Something must have happened then… and I'm pushed to believe that it was the first known Shadow Extraction. Or at least… an event that lead up to it."

Kanji kept silent, his eyes still fixated on that date as if the file on the computer was still there, screaming that number out to him. "Y'all know what happened that night…" he barely whispered, shoulders shaking. It took a moment, but soon enough the rest of the Investigation Team started sharing glances and hanging their jaws. Kanji rest his forehead into a palm and looked over to Naoto, who was obviously perplexed. "That's the night that Ma passed away…" he explained.

Naoto had no words…

"Tell me…" Kanji spoke out, staring hard at Naoto, "Tell me this isn't fuckin' related…!"

"I… I really don't see how it could be… There's nothing signifying that your mother had anything to do with this, Tatsumi-kun…" Naoto spoke, "I mean, coincidences do happen…"

"Yeah? With nothin' else to explain her death except maybe, I'unno… heart failure? You really think I was satisfied with that?" he rose his voice, "She was fit as a fucking fiddle the day before…! She was out jogging that same day, and ain't nothing in our family history about heart failure." He realized very well that this probably was just a coincidence, but the death of his mother had caused a lot of aggressive trauma within Kanji. Without warning and without goodbyes, her death had been nothing short of a shock to his system.

"Where did she go…?" Naoto asked calmly.

"Where, what? The day before?" Kanji blinked, "Went and got her medicine. She was prescribed for headaches and shit. Kind'a like Daichi."

"And you were attacked by Goro's gang the same night that you picked up the same medication for him…"Naoto connected, closing her eyes. "… There's something we're not seeing here."

"Bloody right we ain't, but you know where the bastard that started all of this is now, don't you? We were just heading that way when we found Ai…" Kanji lifted both of his hands and cracked his knuckles, "If we ain't getting answers here, then we know where we can…"

"Tread lightly, Tatsumi-kun… We know that Sousei here was most likely hijacked tonight and so was Ai. In fact, I would not be surprised to hear that we've got an entire armada of Anti-Shadow Suppression Units waiting for us at Tsuge's building. We're not walking into open fire without Mitsuru's advice…" Naoto explained, "And… as much as I hate to think that this will all boil down to your mother's death and its cause… I don't think it's entirely out of the question either."

Everyone looked up with a heated glare at Naoto, Kanji especially. "Then say it, what's Ma got to do with any of this?"

Naoto frowned, "Tatsumi-kun… With your permission, I would like to go see your mother's grave one more time. And in the same trip, I believe that Sousei and Ai should have their manual overrides removed by Mitsuru."

Sousei quickly stood up, "But… then I can't go anywhere with you. I'll have to be locked up in the Port Island labs."

"Indeed, I am not a fan of breaking the law… but for just this once, Sousei… I'll be needing you, regardless," Naoto answered, giving the apprehensive android a soft smile.

Kanji quickly pushed back into the conversation, "And Ma's grave? What about it?"

Naoto lowered her head again, "The hole…" she spoke, "I know I pushed it off as something as common and simple as a burrowing animal before, but there was something about it that I should have thought more into when I first saw it. The hole didn't go all the way down… and there was no hill of dirt around the outskirts of the burrow. I first thought that maybe the snowy weather had shifted the dirt, but even then… This didn't look like a hole being dug downwards."

"Then… what?" Kanji pressed on, his voice cracking slightly.

Naoto looked up into his eyes "It… looked a lot more like a hole being dug outwards, from the coffin…"


	21. Chapter 21

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

February ?, 2013

A beating heart. Warmth. Mindless automation… There was nothing but darkness surrounding the lost Shadow who, although he realized he had a presence somewhere, he wasn't exactly sure of where he was or who he was supposed to be. All he could understand was that even in this visionless atmosphere, he was warm and protected. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't scared. Maybe because there was nothing around him to be seen that could scare him. He was completely void of sight, taste and smell. But he could feel and hear… and that along with the thumping, repetitive sound of a heart beating was enough to sooth him.

Though it felt like a long time had passed since he first realized his presence here, it could have only been a few days, too. He had no sense of time, except for the repetitive noise that lulled him in and out of sleep. But then… it stopped. The thumping ceased, but something told the Shadow that this wasn't the first time it had happened. Some sort of false hope told him that the beating noise would continue again… it had always continued before. But this time, it seemed quite unlikely. Though he waited and waited, the sound did not resume; and over a long period of time, the Shadow also began to feel the soothing warmth seeping away. A feeling of uneasiness took over him… and he shuffled. For the first time, he realized that he was capable of movement. This atmosphere… this dwelling… It was soft and malleable. The more he tried to move, the more freedoms he began to discover. He didn't have to be contained to where he was… Maybe there was something better beyond this place. With very little struggle, the Shadow unraveled his body and discovered a small set of pointed protrusions in front of him. These belonged to him… and whatever they were, they made quick work of the yielding walls of his confinement. Writhing and learning, the Shadow tore through until he discovered a different obstacle before him. It was rougher… denser… and as he clawed and scraped against it, he realized that the world beyond it probably wasn't going to be much warmer than the one he had already found. But he couldn't stay here… He could sense that something was wrong with this place; something eerie and suddenly unwelcoming. Thus, with as much force as he could manage, he coiled against the difficult obstacle and clawed with all his might, finding that his sharp protrusions were eventually capable of cutting through it. Indeed, it would take a while, and especially considering how unaware he was of his own size and flexibility. How much of a hole would he have to pierce until he could get through…? As he continued to dig, small chunks of wood and splinters began to fall against him, and he eventually reached a point where he was able to pass through.

Wiggling forward and out of his sturdy confinement, the Shadow was introduced to another odd texture. It was rough and grainy, but it moved without much issue. Continuing in one single direction for as long as he could, the Shadow eventually paused and curled together. He was getting colder… but for some reason, he felt like he was on the right path. The substance that he dug through was beginning to lift, and for the first time, he was able to perceive a small glint of light in the distance. Eagerly moving towards it, the Shadow dug outwards into the open world and reeled back for a moment from the blinding sunlight. It felt like this was the first time his eyes had ever been used… and at the same time, he was finally able to make sense of his own body. Surrounded by cold, white snow, the Shadow lifted a row of little claws in front of himself. They were not attached to arms, but directly to his body. Like rows of little hooked legs… In fact, there was nothing about him that seemed human at all. Turning a few times on the spot, he realized that he was proportionately very small and trailing behind him were a pair of whip-like rouge tails that dragged in the snow. There was something very unfamiliar and wrong with this body… yet he had no memory of what he was actually supposed to look like. It was a perplexing feeling, and when he tried to call out in distress, all that he could emit were small, mechanical clicks and squeaks.

Distraught by the cold air and his lack of understanding, the Shadow turned around a few more times until he suddenly found a headstone planted in the ground before him. Crawling up to it, he realized that he could at least remember how to read. Unable to speak it, he mentally read over the engraving… and found that it belonged to a Mrs. Tatsumi, 1952 to 2013…

Staring at the name provided to him, the Shadow glanced back and forth between the headstone and the hole he had just dug. When he was finally able to piece everything together, an overwhelming sense of dread took over him and he began to curl up on the spot. Shivering quietly, the Shadow contemplated over why so much of this felt familiar… but also so distant. Either way, something was undeniably wrong.

"Where am I…" he finally spoke out after what had been nearly half an hour of cold meditation. A soft cloud of warm air chased after his voice. Realizing then that he had spoken words, the Shadow quickly sat back up and pressed his hands against the ground below him. Hands…! Two, four, six, eight… Ten fingers. Ten toes… Staring over himself again, he realized that at some point, the alien body from before had disappeared and he was renewed with flesh, hair, and every human sense. It had happened without him even noticing… Still, bare and out in the open, he wasn't any less cold than he was before. He couldn't stay here…

Afraid of what would happen if he was caught like this, the Shadow quickly brought himself to his feet and began to run towards a row of street lights in the distance. The sun in the twilight sky was already beginning to fall and he would soon be without vision again unless he followed the artificial lights. As he struggled over the snow, a numbing sensation took over his lower half and soon enough he could not feel at points where his legs should have been aching. It caused him to stumble a few times, but the most unexpected fall was when he tripped over something like a thin branch and planted face first into the snow. The obstacle whipped forwards again and slapped him in the back of his head, causing him to let out another small yelp. He turned over to see what it was and discovered something odd about this new body of his. Protruding from the dimples of his lower back were the same whip-like tails from his previous body. Apparently those wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Watching them with curious eyes, he eventually learned that he had prehensile control over these… appendages, and they swayed with soft flicks behind him. "What am I…?" he questioned, teeth chattering from the cold.

Having travelled all night, the Shadow felt intense exhaustion and cold. However, none of these sensations would be capable of putting him out of commission. He felt more alive than ever before. Pained and tormented by the weather… but alive. Through all of this, he searched for some sort of solace, somewhere warm and welcoming. He stayed hidden within the veil of nighttime and watched as a small filter of cars passed by on the road he was following. On occasion, he would find an exhaust vent passing out warm air from the back end of a building, but the air there was stale and dirty. So, he never stayed in one place for very long and easily pressed forwards. At the very least, he didn't feel hungry at all…

But he could not progress this way forever. With his body almost completely numbed by the cold, the feelings of exhaustion and illness crept up on him before he had any chance to find a more suitable place to stop for the night. Without knowing it, he had pushed himself to the point where his mind forced itself to shut down and all at once, the Shadow felt himself plummet into the snow against the edge of the road.

February 18th, 2013, Monday

Finally, a warm, familiar sensation…

Drowned in his subconscious, the little Shadow curled together and gave off a half-asleep yawn. He felt once again contained in a comfortable, soft atmosphere. No longer numb and no longer tired… but he couldn't relax just yet. Exactly how had he gone from snowy abyss to warmth so quickly? Additionally, he was beginning to notice an odd sensation of movement from where he was. Eager to understand where he had ended up, the Shadow opened his eyes and stirred on the spot. Just as he was able to get his immediate bearings, an intensely bright light turned on and illuminated where he was: the backseat of a car.

"Yo, he's up," spoke out a voice from the front seats.

The car immediately started to bank towards the side of the road and once it found a safe place to park, it stopped. The Shadow gripped his nails into the soft leather of the seats he lay sideways on, staring forwards with shrunken, unadjusted pupils. Though he was swaddled in an old felt blanket, he could feel his tails quivering with anxiety behind him. The two people in the front seat turned around to face him and curiously stared.

"Check out those eyes…" the same person from before spoke out.

The driver answered with a small nod, "No doubt about it, we've got an early birthday present for Goro, don't we?" he spoke, flipping out a cell phone, "Alright, I'm gonna call him up and let him know that this kid's alive."

"Is he though? He's just starin' at me…" the passenger spoke. Unbuckling his seatbelt so he could get a closer look, he noticed that the draped boy in the backseat was practically paralyzed on the spot. "Y'okay…? Say something."

The Shadow could barely move. Something about this environment was terribly unsettling, but the moment the car had parked and stopped moving, he felt a little bit better. "What is this…?" he asked vaguely, not sure of what to question or how to phrase it. His voice was hoarse and damaged from the cold weather. Still, the inhuman echo and buzz within his words was terribly obvious.

"We picked you up on the highway like, half an hour ago? Thought you were dead or somethin', but you had a pulse and all. Still, damn, what were you thinking? It's minus ten out there and… what, you had the idea to freeze yourself or something?" the passenger responded.

"I'm amazed I didn't freeze…" the Shadow responded, curling into himself. So these people were trying to help him… Very well then.

"Well that's obvious… Yer some kind'a demon, aren't you? Listen to yourself…" he answered nonchalantly. As if such a thing was a common day occurrence… But then again, if anyone was going to pick up a stark naked person off the side of the highway, it would probably be an unreserved oddball like these two. "I mean, it's either that, or you're mad for body modifications, man. Sick tails…"

"Demon…? Am I?" he whispered, not sounding too delighted with that term.

"Mm… Well… what's your name, then?" he asked on.

The Shadow stared down and closed his eyes, trying his hardest to remember. Inside, he thought he knew all along what his name was… but now that he was asked about it, he realized that he didn't actually know. So many of his memories were a blur… he wondered if they were even real. "K… … Ka…" he squinted, "… K… I.. don't know."

In the middle of his failed recollection, the car's driver closed off his cell phone and looked back at the two, "He's up for this, then… Sounds like you've got Goro's interest already, lil' buddy," he spoke, "I mean, unless you've got somewhere else to go."

"Who…? What does he want from me?" the Shadow spoke up. He was confused… but warm. Anything was better than going back out into the cold. Perhaps this was the solace he had been looking for.

"Goro Yagi, a pal of ours. He's into all this theological shite… You'd fit right in. Or at least, he says he'd like to see you at least once," explained the driver, "Unless all that crap on you is fake… Is it?"

"N-No… it's…" the Shadow didn't know how to explain himself to these nosey people. "… I don't know where I was before today. I can't explain why I look like this but… but a demon…? Even if I was, shouldn't you be… running in fear, or something?"

"From a half-dead thing like you? Haha…" the driver shook his head and turned the car ignition on once more, ready to head to their destination, "You give us a problem and we'll toss you out easy. Consider this a good service."

The Shadow hunkered down into his blanket and bristled a little bit when he heard the car start. The moment it began moving, his nails dug deeply into the car seat and they would probably leave a lasting dent in the leather. Why was this vehicle bothering him so much…? Still, as it pulled back onto the road and began its journey, he found that he was able to cope by closing his eyes and forcing himself back to sleep.

* * *

These people were undeniably naive about demons, weren't they? If he was really something as malicious as a demon, then what sort of nut case would be bold enough to pick him up off the streets and run their luck with him? Then again, even he wasn't sure about it… Maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong. Maybe they were taking him to someone who knew. Or maybe they were just a pack of imbeciles… that seemed most likely.

"Oi, at least try to look alive," a voice spoke out from the front of the car again, waking the little Shadow up. The car had stopped, most likely having arrived at its destination. It was the driver's voice, since the passenger from before had already opened his door and left the car.

The Shadow sat up on his elbows and squinted his eyes, adjusting to the light inside the car again. He gave off a gaping yawn, letting his jaw go slack. "Now where…?" he murmured to himself, perking up once he heard the sound of footsteps on gravel walking back towards the car. Two sets of footsteps.

"There you go, man," spoke a voice as the door next to the Shadow opened. Numerous eyes peered in and looked over him, including one unfamiliar person, "Is it like the ones you remember?"

There was silence from the newest face: a man whose short crimson hair and slick goatee defined a lot of his sharp features. It was like being stared at by the devil and the unnerving silence that he displayed didn't help either. The man stared with a stern expression, and the little Shadow nervously curled into his blanket. Covered up entirely by the fabric, the only off-putting feature he displayed were a set of glowing yellow eyes.

The crimson haired man stood back up, "So… you picked up some bum kid off the street and brought him to me because his eyes are discoloured? You could have done better by taking him to a homeless shelter…"

"Goro, man, you ain't seen the half of it…" the driver spoke, turning towards the Shadow, "Show 'im."

The Shadow's hands shook as he pulled the covers up more. Though he had only spent a short amount of time with these people, he had quickly re-learned the instinctual feeling of 'shame'. He was wearing nothing else under this blanket and didn't intend to let go of it just because someone else told him to. The very most that he could manage to do was stick his shoulders out and sway the tails to the side so that they emerged from the edge of the blanket. The moment the odd tendrils came into view, the man… Goro… immediately lost his composure.

"Are those snakes…!?" he questioned. And without a doubt, the two red tails could have looked like that without any context.

"Naw, they're attached to his back. His neck is all weird and bumpy, too… Check it, they're like little claws," the driver motioned towards them. The Shadow wasn't aware of that one, and brought a hand to his neck, feeling what the man accurately described. "And those eyes, yeah… But listen to him talk."

The spotlight grew even stronger on the little creature, and he stared between everyone with a distressed, overcrowded look. They wanted him to speak, but thankfully, he had enough to say. "Please don't hurt me… If… if any of this is wrong, I swear I'll just go… and you can forget you found me. Maybe you shouldn't have in the first place."

"Little dude, you can consider this your lucky night," the passenger from before spoke up again, a hand on Goro's shoulder, "This guy here is all about demonology and chronicle work. Bet he could tell ya exactly what you are. So…" he looked at Goro again, "What is he?"

Goro could feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead and he crossed his arms defensively, "Clearly it's… it's… …" he exhaled strongly, "… going to need a touch of research…"

"Well then, are we leaving it with you?" the driver asked.

Goro quickly snapped a glare at him, "You're really asking me to just take this thing in…!? I don't know what the hell it is. This is my house, this is my routine, my schedule… my work…"

"Dude… You know as well as anyone how much free time you've got right now…" the driver reminded, "Plus, you said that you kept demons at one point. I read it all, man… You were like a freakin' spirit whisperer or some shit. I thought it was hard to believe… but, look. You were right, weren't you? This stuff really exists… I figured you'd be all 'this is my lucky break!' over finding another one."

Goro's fingers gripped into his arms as his friend tried to convince him. Inwardly, he knew that this was a miracle… and indeed an opportunity. "Then you're all staying here for a while... got that? You're not going far, neither of you. I want to know that I can call you in case there is an emergency…"

"Internet and pizza is all I need, man," the passenger spoke out with a light laugh, "I'll stay the night and eat your entire bandwidth if I have to."

Goro sighed, perplexed over how he was supposed to handle this. All of this wasn't exactly on his list of things to do… but at the same time, that list wasn't very long anyways. His friends could stay without issue… but this creature was something entirely different. Goro would be watching it like a hawk.

"Then I guess we're bunking," the driver spoke, finally getting out of his seat and walking around to see the other two. He looked in at the Shadow who uncomfortably stared back. "Well…? Come on out. In case it wasn't really made clear… we ain't gonna hurt ya."

The Shadow didn't have many other options right now… So, unless they were outright lying, this seemed like the best thing to do. Gripping his blanket close, he sat upright and pulled himself out of the car, wobbling somewhat on his shaky legs. Everyone else seemed to be so significantly taller than him… he couldn't help but keep his chin down and quietly follow. But now that he could see where he was, he realized that the car had parked into the driveway of what was most likely Goro's home. Single floored and probably unable to house more than two people at a time, there would probably be a number of people sleeping on couches tonight.

"Oh, yeah…" the passenger spoke up, "He kind've… came as he was. You don't happen to have any spare clothing for this guy, do you?"

"I don't think it'd fit but… whatever works," Goro waved a hand dismissively, leading the trio on. His eyes never left the Shadow for a moment.

When they entered the house, the Shadow stared around at his new environment with growing fascination. Goro wasn't reserved at all about his interests… From the very first hallway, you could see into a large study room that was littered with bookshelves surrounding a well-managed desk space. There were numerous sketches on the walls, and even within the kitchen there was a significant pile of old newspapers stacked and organized in a cabinet. The most outstanding of his decor choices were a series of marked off sections within his house. These areas were bordered off by ropes of hung candles and contained a slew of sketched in symbols on the walls and floor. They were like odd, intrusive little shrines. While the Shadow looked around, Goro had already walked on ahead to fetch something small enough to wear for the little boy. When he returned, he handed the articles of clothing to the Shadow who was still nervous about letting go of his blanket, and pointed in the direction of the nearest bathroom. Following his cues, the Shadow left to get changed.

Though they were just a pair of black and grey hand me down track pants and a t-shirt, they fit well enough. Big, yes, but he didn't mind it in the slightest. Thankfully, those additional appendages on his backside were not hindered by the pants. They protruded much higher than his tailbone; so theoretically, they weren't really tails at all… Either way, he could comfortably wear pants without covering them.

As he stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, though, the Shadow realized how different he was from everyone else. His golden eyes seemed to have a glow all their own, which shone out between navy blue bangs. From the base of his ears and down the sides of his neck were odd rows of bumps with small, thorn-like protrusions escaping from them. And then there were the tendrils, which he struggled to decide on whether or not to just hide them in his pant legs… Probably not. It wouldn't be comfortable at all, and these people already knew about them. What more was there to hide?

"Why don't I remember this…?" he murmured to himself, trailing his fingers down the neck thorns curiously. He didn't remember much in general, no… But something about his appearance now felt very wrong. With a gentle sigh, he folded up the blanket from before and walked back out into the hallway. Finding one of the men from before, he held out the blanket and lowered his head, "Thank you… … um…"

"Hey, he's got manners, that's a start," he replied with a wide grin, taking back the blanket, "It's Jiro. And that there is my twin brother, Yoji. And I guess you already figured out that the weirdo living here is Goro."

The Shadow nodded at the easy-to-remember names.

"You're seriously pushing your luck," Goro yelled out from the kitchen while he nosed around the fridge. "Euh… Gonna have to go grocery shopping tomorrow if you're all staying here for a while… Especially for this guy," he looked up and out into the hallway at the Shadow. "What's your name, what do you eat?"

"Yogurt," the Shadow answered, and then quickly put a hand to the side of his head and squinted his eyes. How did he remember that…?

"Wait… Is that your name, or is that what you eat?" Goro scoffed with amusement, "Some kind of demon you are… Yogurt it is, then. But seriously, what's your name?"

"He couldn't remember it in the car…" Yoji spoke up, "Made it sound like it started with a K or something, but we never got a clear answer."

Again, the Shadow nodded.

"K…? Well… You don't look much like a kappa or a kumbhanda… I'll have to look into that, though," Goro theorized, looking up and down at the boy. His eyes fixated on the golden ones staring back at him, and he snapped his fingers, "How about Kon, then?"

"Kon…?" the Shadow blinked, looking around at himself before taking some of his bangs into his hands, "Because of my hair…?"

"No, dummy, because of your eyes. Gold…" Goro answered, and then gave off a quick laugh, "Wait… your hair? I get it… navy and gold are both 'Kon' sometimes, aren't they?"

"That's an awful pun, Goro…" Jiro mentioned, shaking his head.

Amused nonetheless, the crimson haired man walked up to the Shadow and pet him a few times on the head, "Kon Kon."

Kon, feeling a little more entitled by his new name, gave off a soft smile and swayed his tails with simple delight. He was already getting pretty used to the presence of these new people. There was definitely a warm, familiar atmosphere in the house, no matter how eccentric a lot of it seemed. Still, he knew there was some sort of ulterior motive behind all of this… and now was probably a good time to ask about it. "Well… you brought me here, and I thank you for that. But… what am I supposed to do? You said that you had demons here at one point… what happened to them?"

"Hey, those are pretty loaded questions, one at a time…" Goro answered, offering a seat at the dining table for all of them to sit. "Alright, here's the deal, Kon… I'm not exactly the most well-off man in the world right now. I recently lost my full-time job due to drug abuse and I've managed to clean myself up simply because I can't afford such luxuries anymore. I'm ready to start anew, basically…" he explained, "On the side, though, I've lived as a writer, struggling to get my work published simply because my topics are considered controversial. I do, in fact, have written accounts of spiritual activity in this house. Documented demons that I studied, enshrined, and then ultimately exorcised when they no longer wished to be a part of this plane of existence. I suppose you've seen the shrines here and there… That's where they used to live."

Kon sat up straight, "And… these weren't just hallucinations? I mean… you said drugs…"

Goro hit a hand down on the table, "That was my biggest flaw. When word of my addiction spread, I could no longer be credited as a factual writer. There was nothing I could do to prove the fact that demons have existed here. See, they were never physical beings… But now, with you here… I think you see where this is starting to go."

"You want to write about me?" Kon blinked, "To… support your drug addiction?"

Goro waved a hand, "No, enough about the drugs. I honestly just want to write and make a living off of my work… Plus, aren't you curious about yourself? We could strike up a good partnership, you and me…" he reminded, "I'll give you a roof over your head, food, and knowledge. And I'll finally have a solid topic to write about. Easy, isn't it?"

The Shadow folded his hands together, "How can I really say no… Anything is better than being out in the cold…," he spoke, the end of his sentence breaking out into a small yawn.

"It'll be fine… You're practically human. You get tired, and you enjoy yogurt," Goro said with a thumbs up, "As long as you don't break my bank over it. Anyways… I hate to mention it, but I've only got one bedroom in this place. If you're all staying, then you're going to have to fight over whatever's left in the living room."

Yoji had already set himself down on a reclining chair and after hearing Goro's words, he didn't intend on giving it up. There wasn't much else except a smaller sofa that would require one to curl up in order to comfortably sleep on it, and then there was the floor. A futon could be pulled out onto the floor, at least… And since Kon was the smallest, he was going to have to take the little sofa. He would eventually find out that he was quite comfortable in the fetal position, so all was good. If Goro could manage it, he was most likely going to have to wake up in the early hours of the morning and go shopping for groceries. Something told him that he didn't have nearly enough yogurt…


	22. Chapter 22 - H

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

February 19th, 2013, Tuesday

_It has been too long since I've written in my journal. The last trace of spiritual activity in this house escaped me over two years ago and I felt as if reality had finally decided to sink in. There would be no more supernatural sightings, no more newspapers to document, and no more cultist gatherings. God, I hated calling it a cult, but the rest of them knew we had something special going on. We were special… We were chosen by the spirit realm to bring its existence into light. But we failed the first time around… and the spirits left us without any warning. But they wouldn't be gone for too long. From the point of theology, two years is just a sliver of time that spirits pass through. For all we know, they could have changed their minds on a whim and returned to us almost immediately, wishing to give us another chance. And they did… They brought us another sign, another spirit. One that I've yet to identify, but I'm already very aware of one very important feature… it exists within our physical realm. I can see it, touch it, and talk to it as if it were a real human being. But I know very well that it isn't the same. It speaks in an unreal vocal tone and its eyes glow like fire. Parts of its body are mutated and mythical, but I can already tell that this creature exists under the same laws of our universe. It is posing as a human because it must. It is still a carbon creature and therefore nothing about it seems impossible. If humans had tails and thorns, then perhaps this would be a realistic result._

_I have taken to calling him Kon for the purpose of identification. However, this is nothing more than a simple name. If he is not a unique individual and there are others like him in the world, then it is my desire to understand their species. However, no matter how many years of research I've undergone and how many books I've read, I have yet to encounter a creature like this before. If he is nothing more than a mutated human being, then I will be shamed. But his odd mannerisms and obvious amnesia tell me otherwise. I believe I have found a living miracle._

February 20th, 2013, Wednesday

_Jiro and Yoji have assisted me in the past two days with Kon, but I won't be able to play host to them for too much longer. The other day I gathered food supplies and although I learned that the only substance Kon enjoys is probiotic yogurt, he eats a heinous amount of it. I can't even begin to fathom why he enjoys this food so much, but whatever makes the inner demon happy. Speaking of which, we entered a hearty debate over what sort of creature he could be. I asked Kon about his past life and he had no answers for me. He did explain a few unusual things to me, though. From what he spoke of, it sounds as if he was born just days ago, if born is the right word to be using here… He is unsure about his methods of coming into this world; whether he did it on his own, or if he was sent here as some sort of divine punishment. Goodness knows he wasn't very well equipped for Earth's harsh winters. Jiro and Yoji found him on the side of the highway, stark naked and completely unconscious. He looked as if he had been travelling for quite a distance before giving up at that point._

_Kon didn't have too many memories before that point, except that he could faintly recall running past some graves and headstones. Now, I don't believe very strongly in zombies, but I am a supporter of possession. He could very well have come into this world after subconsciously employing the body of a recently deceased body. Even Kon thinks that my theory makes sense. Whatever modifications he had to make to the body in order to support his spirit self was entirely his own doing… but I doubt he did any of this willingly or consciously. It was a process that most likely stripped him of any previous memories, though there are certain things that he remembers, such as his favorite food… Obviously, this will be all about monitoring his behavior and trying to bring back his lost memories._

February 22nd, 2013, Friday

_As I'm writing this, both Jiro and Yoji are packing up and getting ready to leave for the weekend. I may not need their assistance anymore, since we've had all week to discover that yes, Kon is a very passive sort of demon. Though I will admit to feeling rather unsure and even a little scared when I first brought him in, I've realized that such feelings were unnecessary. He willingly helps around the house and is always eager to answer questions or go through certain trials and experiments. Not harmful experiments, mind you. I merely test his reaction to certain objects or ideas. Like showing a bulb of garlic to a vampire. So far, I've learned that he has a very negative response to water. For that reason, I'm crossing off the possibility of him being any sort of kappa. That's something I forgot to mention… He's quite affixed to the letter 'K' and believes that there were a number of significant things to him that included that letter. But no, he's not a kappa._

_The only other insecurity he has is around Jiro and Yoji's car, which is something I can't relate back to any species of spirit or demon. It could be that he is a very ancient spirit and is unaccustomed to modern technology, but he knows very well how to use a computer and all the other appliances in the house. He's even cooked for me at one point, which was highly unexpected since he himself would never eat the things that he makes. My only other guess is that he may have had some sort of past trauma that has to do with cars. Perhaps some part of him was once involved in a car accident._

February 25th, 2013, Monday

_It has been a week since Kon came into my care and I've had nothing short of good memories with this creature. It is indeed a miracle that he even exists, but to fall into my hands specifically? Who knows where he would be right now if we didn't find him. If the cold alone didn't kill him, then someone else may have done even worse. I imagine the government would have a fit if they knew this boy existed. There are numerous reasons why I haven't been taking him to a hospital or showing him around to anyone else… Perhaps it's selfish of me, but it could also be for the better. I realize now that if and when I do get this book published, I will have to abandon Kon, or at least exorcise him back into a safer realm. I will provide real documentation, though… Photographs, videos, perhaps even samples if he has anything to offer. But I would never bring his existence into public light without ensuring his safe return to where he belongs. Kon doesn't need media attention… as much as I wish otherwise. I'll admit that this child has a very odd way of growing onto you._

February 28th, 2013, Thursday

_I apologize for not updating my journal as much as I originally planned to. This was supposed to be a daily thing to begin with, but I've been actively trying to entertain this creature. He seems very eager to go outside and explore, but I've had to constantly tell him no. Again, I feel selfish… but who wouldn't do the same? I live in a crowded residential area. There are children playing on the streets and families walking by with leashed dogs. The last thing Kon needs is the motivation to go outside and play with other people. Ugh… I realize that this week was supposed to be dedicated entirely to research, but I feel like I spent far more time trying to understand this creature from a social context rather than from a spiritual one. The most I've been able to do is read out loud the mythologies and history of our land from my books to him, in hopes that they may be able to assist his memories. So far, he seems to be the most interested in the tales of Okuninushi and Prince Osu._

March 1st, 2013, Friday

_I don't know why, but Kon is starting to develop some sort of unidentifiable aura around him from time to time. He doesn't seem to notice it, and that's most likely because it only ever shows up when he's excited, distracted, or annoyed by something. With his focus so consumed by something else, it's understandable why he wouldn't notice it. Still, it doesn't seem to have any adverse effects. It has no temperature or smell and it's barely visible. Like the same distorted blur caused by clear fire smoke. Whenever I do happen to draw attention to it, it immediately stops and Kon turns away from me as if embarrassed by something. He doesn't seem to want to talk about what it is._

_I wonder if I'm going to regret this decision… Actually, I'm considering allowing him out into the backyard just to get some fresh air and to enjoy the good weather. We're going to be having a surprisingly warm weekend, so I'm sure he'll appreciate it. If everything goes well, then I'm sure it wouldn't be too much trouble to hide his… notable features… and to show him a little more of the world. As long as he knows how to not draw attention to himself._

March 2nd, 2013, Saturday

_I suppose I should say mission success. Day by day, this creature manages to fascinate me in the oddest of ways. Yes, I decided to take him outside for a little while, and the first thing he asked me was: "Do I need to use this voice?" And would you believe it… he sounded completely normal. It wasn't anything like his usual, reverberating voice. Like he had plucked a voice from someone else completely and was now employing it flawlessly. After that, it was just a matter of hiding the tails and thorns under some more layers of clothing. He was going to need a scarf anyways; it's still a tad nippy outside. But aside from his eyes, he seems completely human for once. Maybe I will be able to allow this boy some more freedoms in the future… Of course, it's just a thought._

_Anyways, even though I only took him as far as the backyard would go, he was immediately interested in everything around him. He was probably quite glad to enjoy the outside world without freezing to death. There were a few odd times where he started crawling very low to the ground. Staring intensely at the withered grass under the snow, he would grip handfuls of dirt between his fingers. When I asked him what he was doing all of that for, he explained that it was bringing back memories. Somehow he remembered being extremely small, and it didn't feel like too long ago either. I suggested that, perhaps, he had been born small. That left him in silence for the rest of the adventures outside. When he was done, he barely passed a glance at me and then retreated inside to do his own thing. Did I offend him somehow?_

March 5th, 2013, Tuesday

_Kon seems to be doing better today. He's getting progressively more caught up in his own thoughts as the days go by, though. I'm starting to think that traces of his memories may be resurfacing, and it isn't my place to ask him about them, but he knows that he has someone to talk to if it's needed. Naturally, I'm quite capable of listening. At most, I've asked him if my writing and documentation of him has become an issue, and he says that it hasn't. That's quite fortunate, considering the fact that as I've progressed with my writing, I've also started contacting the old gang about my findings. On that note, I've already written a considerable amount of the book's introduction, but I still want to get a further analysis from trusted help before getting into the meat of it. I know that a number of these guys should be able to provide valuable information, or at least a shred of support._

March 7th, 2013 Thursday

"Are you still resting here, or have you wandered far away…?" Kon spoke out, sitting with his legs crossed before one of the many tiny shrines in the house. His twin tails slapped lightly against the tiled floor beneath him, "Goro said that you were friendly demons… I wonder if there are any of you out there that are actually evil."

Kon pondered inwardly when he realized that these shrines wouldn't be giving him any response. They must have been empty… But then, why would Goro keep them lying around like this? Come to think of it, a lot of the house's setup and décor was very… flaunty. Maybe he took pride in the thought that he once housed demons here. It definitely wasn't something you heard of every day… and more reason as to why he probably wasn't believed. But the way he kept his house made it seem like this had become a lifestyle for him. A lifestyle of not being believed… Until now, of course.

There weren't too many days where Goro would outright leave the house with Kon all by his lonesome. But this was one of them, and they both trusted each other enough to make these events possible. Today, Goro had left saying that 'it's going to be an amazing day, kid, and I ain't celebrating this sober.' What did he mean by that? He had been gone for 20 minutes now, and that alone was enough to drive the little Shadow batty with curiosity. When Kon was done poking around at the shrines, he wandered over to the hallway and sat down before the front door, staring up at it with eager eyes. The moment the door unlocked and opened, Kon's tails flailed wildly from side to side like a hyperactive puppy.

"Goro-kun!" he yelled out, jumping up to his two feet.

"Hooome, home, home… Dear god, were you just sitting there this whole time?" Goro answered back, shutting the door behind him with a foot. His arms were full of groceries again, and one tall paper bag with a bottle tip poking out from it.

Kon quickly shook his head, "I was talking to the spirits. Well- I tried to… I don't think they're actually there anymore."

Goro laughed, walking to the kitchen to set all the bags down, "They left years ago… of their own will, no less. Without a proper exorcism, I can't even say if they still remain on our plane of existence, or if they returned to their own. Either way, they never came back here…"

"Did something bad happen?" Kon asked, nosing around the grocery bags. He noticed the yogurt first, but he was most curious about that bottle in the paper bag.

"I suspect they just had to move on. No spirit can stay in one place for too long… it gets restless," he spoke, eyes following Kon's every move. "Don't touch that."

Kon quickly retracted his hand away, almost having touched the bottle, "Why is it in a different bag?"

Goro sighed from the silly question, "Because I got it from a different store," he answered, "A little undercover place I know… sells pretty hardcore stuff like this." Reaching for it, Goro pulled the bottle out of the bag and scanned over it once before setting it down on the table. The bottle was a sizable one and the liquid inside was clear as crystal, but there were no labels or other indication of what it was. "It's like the Everclear of sakes, kid. You can't get this at the same ol' store."

"Sake…?" Kon blinked, "I see… You said you were celebrating something…?"

"Quite right," Goro nodded, "Started talking to some old pals a couple of days ago. They've been quite interested in you… In fact, they've always been interested in my work and writings. They say it's a damn shame that I've yet to be published…" as he explained, he opened up a drawer to grab a corkscrew for the bottle, "Anyways, I mean seriously interested. Said they'd drop a huge funding our way if I can prove that you're the real deal. So… what do you say?" As he uncorked the bottle, he lifted the tip to his nose and it was obvious that the liquid inside was foul and strong. He exhaled with delight.

"How do you plan on doing that…?" Kon asked meekly.

"D'unno… I sure as hell ain't letting them touch you, though, no matter how much I trust these guys," he answered, "I promise, no one's taking you away, alright?" Goro followed that statement with a quick, shallow swing of alcohol and immediately set the bottle down. "Dear god, that's… heuh… distinctive."

The Shadow smiled and was glad to know that Goro cared at least a little bit for his well-being. If this was important to him, then he would eagerly play his part without fail. "I'll be friendly. If you trust them, then I trust them too," he mentioned, staring sincerely at Goro. However, as the other man set the bottle back on the table, Kon's eyes were drawn to it instead, "… Is that good?"

"Damn good…" Goro answered, the alcohol already reflected in his breath. It must have been terribly concentrated, and to take it straight from the bottle, undiluted… "Burns like hell and works like the magic man. Kid, I bet you wouldn't be able to stand a drop of this."

"That's a bet?" Kon blinked, arms folded.

Goro sat back in his chair, "I ain't scrapping your taste buds afterwards is what I'm saying."

Reading it off like an exciting little dare, Kon gripped the bottle and brought it to his lips, showing no mercy for the onslaught of wicked, foul tastes that were about to come his way. Except, of course, that they didn't. He didn't taste a single ounce of the fluid. It was cool, refreshing… and perhaps a little odd to the nose, but not enough to stop him from drinking nearly a quarter of the bottle. He continued until Goro ultimately grabbed it from him and pulled it away, eyes wide. Kon exhaled without issue and gave a thumb up, licking his lips.

"S-seriously…! Kid, that was way too much…!" Goro stammered, already a little tipsy just from the couple swings he took before, "You sit your ass down this moment."

Kon dismissively shrugged his shoulders and sat down, "I'm fine, you're just a lightweight."

Goro squinted his eyes, quite certain that he was seeing small wispy hazes escaping from Kon's arms and backside. Maybe it was just the alcohol, though… "You d'unno shit…" he leered, taking another plunge into the drink, already quite used to the taste by now, "N' you're going to regret that, I swear."

Kon grinned wide, shaking his head, "No, really. Emfine."

"Emfine?" Goro squinted again.

"I'm…! I'm… good. Fine. Really, all good," the Shadow leered back, finally noticing Goro's intense stare. The two played it off until their eyes strung from dryness, and it ended when Kon gave off a small, squeaky hiccup.

"Yer gone…!" Goro pointed a finger dramatically at the creature in front of him, "Plastered like drywall."

Kon set his forehead down on the table and shook his head from side to side, "Fuh."

Goro blinked and leaned in close, "Mmrphemgert?"

Kon looked back up at his friend, "Gryaghsterp." There wasn't even a hint of English left in their voices.

Goro hit his hand down on the table and gave off a hearty laugh, "Uuahaaha, look'it this! I'm outdrinkin' the devil like a boss."

"Y'didn't have as much…!" Kon complained, pointing out that the bottle was only a little more than a quarter finished.

Taking another quick swing, Goro shook his head and gulped, "Tastes like shit but I'm savoring it, y'hear? Yer halfway to the moon already n' that's not how it's supposed to work. You gotta… relaaaax and crap…"

"I'em relaxed…" Kon winced, setting his chin down on the table. This liquid was doing a considerable amount of things to his head and fast… Suddenly, it felt like processing even the most obvious of things in front of him was difficult. Lights were getting way too bright, and Goro's words were hard to understand. If they returned to the muttered nonsense phrases from before, he'd probably feel better.

"Yeh, you're gettin' there…" Goro closed his eyes, "This is a good day, m'right? … Don't get too messed up…"

Kon didn't know if he could take his friend's advice. For some reason, and it was probably the alcohol talking, he felt the compelling urge to take another shot of the drink. It was just sitting there… So good, so intoxicating… and Kon had only had one go at it so far. With a light murmur, he lifted a hand and reached towards the bottle again. However, with surprisingly quick reflexes, Goro emitted a quick 'no' and leaned forwards to pull the bottle away. As he took hold of it, Kon's hand rested over his and the most peculiar sensation suddenly ran through the man's head. A very strange and blinding dizziness overcame Goro and he sat paralyzed on the spot, unable to pull the drink away. Kon's hand gripped tighter, and his golden eyes stared deeply into Goro's, completely fixated on him. The gently forming aura around the Shadow's body solidified further into a mauve smoke that darkened his features.

Goro stammered lightly under his breath, unable to make any sort of sense of what he was seeing. It was like a trip… but nothing like what any sort of alcoholic drink could cause. As it progressed and numbed his mind, Goro's hand gradually loosened its grip on the beverage, giving Kon the opportunity to grab it instead. Doing so, the Shadow brought the drink to his lips again and enjoyed another refreshing round, setting the bottle down much quicker than before this time. He kept his eyes on Goro all the while, signifying his dominance over the situation.

Goro heaved with confusion as he saw the Shadow coming closer, its hands and knees carrying it onto and across the tabletop, from one end to the other where Goro sat. Kon lifted a hand and placed it underneath Goro's neck, his thumb and index finger wrapping tenderly against the man's taut throat. He didn't squeeze… he simply stared, head cocked to one side as he watched the man tremble before him. There was nothing frightening about Kon's stare… it was nothing more than a look of pure curiosity. But from Goro's perspective, the situation was terrifying.

Squinting his eyes, Kon leaned forwards and replaced his hand's grip with his mouth instead, letting his free fingers coil behind Goro's neck. Biting down gently, Kon recalled a taste that was far more intoxicating than any drink or drug. His tongue traced across every surface that it could find, harmlessly enjoying the savory sensation. This was it… He could taste this, and only this. Why…? As his fingers pressed into the back of Goro's neck, the man felt his numbness intensify until he was no longer able to support his own head. Rolling back in his seat, Goro stared upwards with a blank expression and took far longer than he should have to notice the very odd… very alien … thing… that was free floating above the drunken pair. By the time he did notice it, so had Kon, and the little Shadow quivered excitedly at the sight. Letting go of the man's neck, Kon tried to lift himself up closer to the ghostly apparition, his jaw lined with saliva.

Then, all at once, it disappeared… Goro sat up straight and shoved Kon away, a push that almost caused the sake bottle to topple over. In response, the Shadow blinked quickly and shook his head, staring at Goro with perplexity. Both of them were confused… Was there really anything that either of them could say?

"F-… Fuck, what did you just do…?" Goro finally emitted after a deathly long silence.

Kon wiped his mouth and looked away, his eyes still hazed from the alcohol, "D'unno…"

"That thing… Whatever it was… It was like a ghost or some shit…!" Goro exclaimed, leaning towards the drink. He quickly took a sniff of it… as if something could be wrong with it. But no, that had just happened, and the drink was definitely not the cause. "Did you do that…?" he looked back up at the boy.

Kon, who was still sitting on his knees upon the table, folded his arms and emitted a little whine.

"Hey… hey, no, it's cool… Damnit, I need to write this down, that was a bloody trip, it was…!" Goro scrambled drunkenly off of his chair and around the kitchen, trying to find a good piece of paper and a pen. Whatever he managed to scrawl down onto the paper was most likely nothing more than a reminder of what had just happened… Something that would help him recall this moment, in case his hangover left him with a shot memory. Looking back up at the table, he noticed that the creature sitting there was shivering and uneasy. "Yo… y'okay…?"

"Mhm…" Kon nodded reassuringly, eyes closed. "I just… I feel like I did something bad…"

"Felt pretty damn good, honestly…" Goro remarked, which seemed to brighten the boy's expression a little. "Actually… call this a pretty stupid idea if y'want but… what if ya did it again…? With the guys around and stuff… s'they could see what you can do… I mean, if that was your doing an' stuff… I'd call this pretty good proof."

Kon curled together, "That thing that appeared…? But… what if that wasn't my fault….?"

"Well it sure as hell wasn't the booze that did it…!" Goro exclaimed, "C'mon… I have to see that thing again... Maybe get someone tuh photograph it. Could be important…!"

Kon rubbed his forehead and sighed, feeling a slight headache coming on with no thanks to Goro's pushiness. "Alright… I can try…" he answered, giving off another small hiccup. Even though they were agreeing to this now, neither seemed to be aware of how much the alcohol was altering their sense of logic. Was this something that really had to be shown? Was it even safe? Currently, neither of them seemed to care.


	23. Chapter 23 - E

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

March 8th, 2013, Friday

_I learned something today that put me into a state of really heavy contemplation… Apparently the old gang wants to meet up at Club Burlesque tomorrow, a cozy little rave layer that I admittedly spent much of my frivolous past within. This means that they want to meet up in a public place… Mind you, a place so crowded and carefree that no one would take a second look at you for having yellow eyes. Hell, cosmetic contact lenses were a pretty big craze the last I remember… But what they don't seem to understand is that this kid is… well, most likely just a kid. He's barely five feet tall and there's no way he'd pass with a fake to get in. Essentially, I won't be able to take him… No matter how much I can cover up his demonic traits._

* * *

_Well, I thought that was all I was going to write in my journal today, but apparently not. I told Kon about my plan to visit the gang at Club Burlesque and he immediately got excited. When I told him that he wouldn't be able to enter the club so late at night, he immediately fell into depression. No, really, total depression. He started whining and sobbing illogically, saying he really wanted to go. But honestly, this only further proved how much of a child he really is… Still, I gave it as much thought as I could, and I told him that the only thing really stopping him is the bouncer at the door. We won't be drinking tomorrow, so they won't be checking us at the bar… And from that alone, Kon clapped his hands and said that he could sneak by. And how, do you ask…? You're not going to believe this… But right in front of me, he changed into something completely different. Suddenly, he was tiny, insect-like, and hugging a whole bunch of his little legs against my foot. If I didn't already know that I had a demon in my midst, then I would have completely flipped my shit. … Alright, I'll be honest, I did flip my shit a little. He was like a tiny, mechanical caterpillar of sorts. He made small squeaks as he moved, too, which I'll admit… t'was pretty damn adorable. Anyways, I realized that if he could pull this off at the club, then he would easily be able to sneak in after me. I'd carry him in myself, but I honestly fear the metal detectors… They'd probably pick him up without fail._

_So, it looks like we have a bit of a plan forming. This ability alone will be enough to convince the guys that Kon is something special, that I'm sure of. I'm still curious about the ghost we saw yesterday, but a public club probably won't be the best place to show off such powers. After the show, perhaps…_

March 9th, 2013, Saturday

The droning sound of heavy bass music drew closer as Goro and Kon walked to their destination. This was the first time that Kon had been anywhere else but the house and its backyard, so he was both very curious and very timid about everything around him. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to see much during their walk to Club Burlesque. In order to avoid catching anyone's attention, Kon remained in his tiny mechanical form throughout the entire duration of the walk. He first hid inside the hood of Goro's shirt, poking his little face out anytime something caught his attention. However, he was quick to hide again whenever he saw people coming.

That position remained until they got closer to the club. With entirely planned motions, Goro turned his back towards a wall and made a quick stretching motion, reaching out one arm behind his head. Kon quickly gripped onto his hand and was pulled down to the man's side. Continuing forwards, the creature squirmed like a caterpillar down the man's leg and to the hem of his pants. Like a little invisible anklet, the little Shadow clung to the base of Goro's leg, under his pants and above his sock. However, even with the sock to grip onto, Goro could feel small pricks against his leg anytime Kon clung too tightly. It was an awkward and disorienting position for the creature as well, but this was the one place that Kon could quickly escape and sneak through the doorway from. Stepping into the line at the front gate of the club, Goro folded his arms nonchalantly and knew he would have no issue getting inside. The people here knew him very well.

Awaiting their turn, Goro looked ahead at the line and confirm that he knew the guy bouncing tonight. Since it had been so long since he last came here, he worried about such changes, but thankfully tonight was their lucky night. They practically had a ticket in already, and when Kon heard a delighted 'Glad to be back' from Goro, who was in conversation with the bouncer, he crept away from Goro's leg and through the doorway while everyone else was distracted. There were a pair of metal detectors at the door that were too high up to catch him as he squirmed low to the ground and hid inside the entrance of the club. When Goro followed after, the man tossed a pleasant amount into the club's tip jar and felt as the mechanical creature grabbed onto his foot again. _Perfect_, Goro thought in his mind.

Pushing his way through the crowds of noisy clubbers, Goro made a beeline towards the bathroom and dropped Kon off in one of the stalls. Lucky for them, no one had entered the bathrooms yet and Kon was free to transform back into his human-like form without issue. Hearing the boy give off a sigh of relief, Goro chucked a small backpack full of clothing over the stall's door and heard Kon catch it with a huff of surprise.

"I already have clothes…" Kon exclaimed after opening the bag, knowing to use his human voice while he talked in public places, "It morphs into me with the transformation… I'm not naked or anything."

"No, but you'd do good to wear that uniform on top. It'll hide your age," Goro spoke.

Pulling out the clothing as requested, Kon saw that it was a jet black school uniform with a Year 3 insignia pinned into the fabric. As his eyes wandered up and down it, he started to recognize the design of this uniform… Very faintly, but it was still something. He contemplated over this memory as he put on the top and replaced his pants with the ones that match this uniform. If these were Goro's, then the man had certainly grown after High School. It wasn't too uncomfortably large on Kon, and there was plenty of room to hide his tails in the pants legs. Underneath the top, he was already wearing a thin hoodie that served to hide the thorns in his neck. The entire ensemble had perfectly disguised him… Well, except for his eyes. And Kon did notice that Goro had snuck a pair of sunglasses into the backpack just in case, but even Kon knew that they wouldn't be entirely necessary. It was odd enough that Kon was entering a club with a school uniform on.

"Genkaku…?" Kon blinked, opening the stall door to show that he had changed.

Goro looked up with surprise, "Oh, you know of it? That's interesting… Yes, that was my old High School. I'm long graduated but I always figured it was worth keeping the old uniform around. And wadda'ya know, it fits you well."

"And this is alright…?" Kon asked, giving Goro a perplexed stare. "It's not too formal for this kind of… establishment?"

Goro shook his head, "Like I said… it'll make you look older. More refined…" he said, "Let me tell you about the dress code here. You either look like a whore, or you drop your balls and look sophisticated. The whores get in easy, but the gentlemen are the ones that have the best time," he added on with a light wink.

"I don't think I'm here to have a good time," Kon spoke with a small sigh, following Goro back out into the main stage room. The pounding of the bass and the blinding lights were very distracting, and a small of sweat and alcohol filled the air. It was suffocating, but for some reason… a little enthralling as well. Especially the sweat…. It was a succulent smell.

"Then we won't stay for too long…" Goro promised, "Just stay close; I know where these guys are."

With the dance floor so crowded, it was difficult at times to keep up with the other man. Kon occasionally tried to reach out for Goro's hand so that he could be pulled along, but Goro would always immediately slap his hand away. It was a reaction that didn't make too much sense for the little Shadow, but he appeased the man's personal space. Following along, the two of them scaled a small set of stairs until they reached one of many platforms hugging the walls of the dance floor. These sectioned off areas had tables and sofas for lounging, and within one of these spaces was a small gathering of people that Goro was clearly making his way towards. It was obvious that these were the right people when they rose their hands and greeted the new arrivals.

"'Ey, they didn't kick you out at the door this time!" one voice spoke up, followed by a small round of chuckles.

"Yeah right, I keep this place alive," Goro spoke as he sat down, leaving a spot next to him for Kon to sit as well.

"You used to," the other man spoke up again, his and everyone else's eyes now drawn to the boy who had followed in. "That it, then? Your little 'secret weapon'?"

"This is him," Goro tilted his head down at the smaller boy, and then back to the others, "And you know what…? I miss this place as much as the lot of you must, but really… Did we have to come here tonight? It was both hell getting him in here, and even worse… there's only so much that I can show you in a place like this. You'll just have to take my word for everything I say," he folded his arms.

"And I plan to, Goro-san… But we have the right to protect ourselves too, and I speak for everyone here when I say that I believe in 'safety in numbers'. Don't think that this was without reason… If I judge that this… thing… you've brought to us is in good nature, then and only then will I step out of my comfort zone," he answered, resting his chin against his folded hands, "And from what I can see so far… I think I might already believe you."

Goro dropped his shoulders, "You brought us here because you're afraid of Kon?" He wasn't sure of what to think now. It made sense… that perhaps Kon would feel too intimidated to cause any trouble in a crowded location like this, but it wasn't as if he planned to cause harm in the first place. Kon had been under Goro's care for almost two weeks now… and he had been nothing short of obedient and kind. "Well… at least you're taking this seriously."

"And why wouldn't I?" he answered, watching the creature before him. Those golden eyes… nothing else could possibly grab his attention more. "I'd say you found something very interesting indeed."

Kon pushed the tips of his fingers together, staring back and forth between all of the people who were now watching him. It was uncomfortable, and he curled towards Goro and whispered, "Who is that…?"

"Ah, pardon me, little one. I am Isamu Miyagi, an old friend of Goro-san's," he answered for himself, holding out a hand across the table.

The Shadow timidly held out his own hand and shook only the tips of Isamu's fingers, then quickly retracted it and hid against Goro again.

"Shy, isn't he…" Isamu pointed out, giving off a small grin before looking to Goro again, "Well then… I wonder how our order of business is going to play out. I'm still not entirely convinced that this boy you've brought me is any sort of demon, though I'm very open to your input and whatever proof you've brought me tonight. I suppose we should start off with the basics… Exactly what sort of demon have you found?"

"I… cannot fully identify him. I assume he might be some sort of possessing spirit, though one that couldn't retain his own memories during the point of possession. That fact alone has made it difficult for us to understand exactly what he is and where he came from… But the simple truth is that he's here, physical and real… That's my main theory as to why he may have come into this world through someone else's body," Goro explained. Thankfully, the heavy drone of the club music made it possible for them to talk about such things without fear of eavesdroppers.

"Amnesia…? That's not a very reassuring case…" Isamu answered with a sigh, "Then what is it about him that made you think he's a demon? He looks entirely human to me."

Kon could feel the man's hard gaze on him again. Directly into his eyes…

"There are things about him that I cannot show you here…" Goro shook his head with a frown, "… but I brought photographs." As he spoke, Goro reached for the backpack once more and pulled out a small binder of images, handing them off to Isamu.

The few others that were here with Isamu stared into the contents of the binder with him when he opened it up. Many of them lost their composure and hung their jaws, staring at documented pictures of Kon's neck, the tendrils, his eyes, and most recent of all… were pictures of the little mechanical caterpillar. Finished with his scanning, Isamu closed the binder and remained liberal, fingers folding in front of him again. "Photoshopped and pictures of a child's toy."

Goro sat up straight, "They are not…! I promise you, everything I've just shown in that book is real. You said… You said you were willing to believe me," he leered.

Isamu's grin curled, "I am criticizing you as any cynical publishing company would. Maybe I do believe you… or maybe I don't. But they definitely won't. What I'm wondering now is… if I do decide to fund your work, how will you convince the ignorant with nothing more than photographs and words? There are plenty of fakes in the world today, Goro, and even I'm beginning to doubt my own familiars thanks to the power of technology. You could be desperate for money, and nothing more… So, you fished out the strongest photo editing software you've got and figured you could convince the world with that alone. You know it won't work… The Internet is full of supernatural forums full of superfrauds. If people aren't there when something happens, then it may as well have never happened at all. That's the mindset that the human race is regrettably shifting towards. It's causing us to forget, causing us to become ignorant…" Isamu closed his eyes, "Now, again… How are you going to convince me, and then the world?"

Goro stared at the group in front of him, his hands shaking slightly. Isamu knew exactly why he had brought Goro and Kon to this location… He knew exactly what he was saying, and it was deviously manipulative. Everything he said was true… Even if Goro could convince these men here and now, how could he do the same for his readers with nothing but text and pictures? If those pictures alone weren't enough to convince Isamu… then why would it work for anyone else? Pure and simple, Goro would be called a sham… unless he publicly announced Kon's existence. Considering the fact that it had been Goro's plan to release Kon before the book got published, showing him off to the world was easily the last thing he wanted to do. He wouldn't be able to promise Kon's safety at all if he did such a thing.

Isamu could see that Goro was stumped, "So, you won't take the necessary risks…"

Kon could sense that something was wrong with his friend… Goro had been pushed into a very uncomfortable corner with a very difficult choice ahead of him. "You promised…" Kon whispered lightly to him, "You won't let them take me…"

Goro shook his head. He didn't want to… But with that horrible truth in front of him, he realized that everything was suddenly out of his hands. The… funding… that these men would provide to him… in truth, it was nothing more than an exchange for the boy. The thought of losing Kon to something as selfish as money was ridiculous. But the more he thought about it, the more Goro realized that perhaps… he had been quite selfish all along. Dragging Kon here and using him for personal gain. At what point was any of this alright? He shook lightly… feeling his mind going progressively number as he tried to untangle himself from this predicament. No… this wasn't right… It was getting harder to think… he couldn't do it… But everyone was… staring now. Why…?

Isamu and his gang started pulling out of their seats and backing up, eyes going wide as they stared at Goro and Kon. A faint glow had appeared above the two of them, one of which caused a number of people in the immediate vicinity to finally take notice of the scene happening at the table. Kon's hand had gripped the back of Goro's neck and his fingers firmly squeezed against the man's skin, his features darkening like before.

"Goro-kun doesn't need to convince you…" the little boy whispered out, his teeth bared at Isamu. His eyes radiated a brighter glow than before, and they shone out clearly underneath the small wisps of hazy smoke that perspired off his body.

Above them, in perfectly clear sight, was the ghostly apparition from before. Those watching it were unable to discern whether the ghost was an amazingly well done light show or a drug induced hallucination. Everyone was seeing it, though… and it was a spectacle that no one could have possibly expected. Floating above Goro was the form of a shaggy lion crowned in a golden headdress, its snake-like tail whipping wildly behind it as it twitched and spun on the spot like a Chinese lion dancer. From its jaw protruded rows of flat teeth, and two tusks which jutted outwards like curved fangs. As it ceased its spinning, its sunken round eyes focused on Isamu and it bared its teeth in unison with Kon.

"Barong…" Kon whispered lightly, eyes staring up and following the creature as it danced and hopped on the spot. _Guardian of children_…

"T-the hell…!" one of unnamed men stepped further away, but Isamu himself held his ground.

With such a sight dancing before all of them, no one took notice as the wispy haze surrounding Kon began to intensify at his feet. Flowing outwards beneath him, the haze spread across the wooden planks of the floor and towards the rest of the men who thought they were at a safe distance from the ghost. The moment the substance reached them, however, it crawled up their legs and seeped across their skin. Then, in one gripping moment, the haze took affect and the men tumbled to the floor, completely unconscious. Left in their wake, glowing and floating with bewilderment around their bodies, were faded creatures in shapes and sizes quite different from each other. By now, more than half of the club had taken notice and security was running up the stairs to subdue the issue.

Kon's mouth hung open as he stared at the creatures before him, his fingers leaving dents in the skin of Goro's neck.

Personas…

All at once, both he and the ghostly lion launched themselves from Goro's side, mouths agape as they targeted the creatures before them. However, as Kon removed his hand and set Goro free, the man quickly blinked back to reality and the lion disappeared before it had the chance to go any further. As Kon continued on, he collided in midair with one of the apparitions and grappled onto it with his mouth and fingers. Doing a free-fall over the platform's banister, both he and the ghost tumbled onto the main dance floor before a crowd of people who spread out from surprise.

Finally stirred back into awareness from the screams and yells below, Goro bolted upright and saw that Isamu's men were struggling to get back up while the creatures hovered above them. Isamu, though, had already broken out of his stupor and had scrambled to his feet, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright!?" Goro yelled out, running towards the others.

Isamu gripped the banister with a shaking hand, a strong glare being passed back at Goro. "Look at what you've wrought… What you've raised…" he panted deeply, "Something like this shouldn't have been left in your hands, Goro!"

Kon's eyes flashed gold as he pinned the apparition below him, his jaw seeming to unhinge as he lunged forth and sunk his teeth into the essence that made up the creature. As he pulled back, the dark, gooey entrails of his victim snapped and oozed black with every bite. Kon heaved deeply after swallowing; his blank… satisfied… expression challenging everyone in the vicinity. As the creature squirmed underneath him, the man it had been expelled from screamed in bloody murder and caused both Goro and Isamu to cup their hands over their ears in distress. When the creature finally bled out from Kon's disemboweling bites, the man also passed out from unimaginable pain. He was alive… but unresponsive.

"Kon…!" Goro yelled out over the railing at the boy, but nothing was getting his attention. Not above all the screams, and definitely not above the yelling security that tried to evacuate everyone off of the dance floor.

Kon licked his lips devilishly and stood on his two feet again, one of which planted firmly into the gut of the creature he had just devoured. The haze which flowed from his skin followed him on the floor as he stepped away from his victim and towards the center stage. Like water before Moses, the crowd parted and once again, they took no notice as the foggy substance effortlessly crept into their systems. Reaching the abandoned stage, Kon stepped upon it and turned towards the crowd, his arms outstretched. Security stood their ground with tasers and cuffs gripped in their hands, silently watching.

"Goro…!" Kon called out, his voice returning to its usual alien echo. Its eerie effect was intensified by the large, reverberating walls of the room. "I've been patient enough with you… But it's taken you far too long… and now I am tired of waiting," his voice drummed, "I am a Shadow… the true, inner self. I have no need for you anymore… Soon, your mind will be battered to nothing… and I feel I must apologize for that. It will have been my fault, you see…" he grinned without sympathy. Turning his attention to the crowd before him, the Shadow continued his outburst, "The lot of you…! … You will live carefree, unaware and desperately in pursuit of pleasure… very much like you have all been here tonight. Consider this… a present… an ability… to make all of your deepest delights come true."

As he spoke, a sublime light radiated from those who had already been affected. As the haze seeped inside, the creatures from within made themselves apparent before everyone else, lifting up out of their hosts. The crowd filled with faces of mindless indulgence. Dozens of them… and soon, many more.

"Alone, you are nothing… Together, you will discover pleasures beyond normal human comprehension. What I have granted you tonight… this sensation… Once done upon you, it can be shared infinitely. My only one wish is that you not speak of what happened here tonight…" he whispered lowly, "… or else I will personally kill you."

Such a phrase should have caused security to act… but they didn't. They stood as mindlessly as the rest of the crowd, the spirits surging and dancing to the heavy bass music above them. Turning around to the rest of the crowd, the affected lifted their arms and advanced, embracing anyone within reach. Many of them tumbled to the floor, their arms and legs entangling as they drowned in physical passion with each other. Within minutes, the club had transformed into a mindless, hedonistic spectacle. The spirits themselves were quivering and moaning against each other, and there were very few people that remained who were not affected by the haze. Whether they had received the desire from Kon or another, the amount of lusting bodies on the ground grew indefinitely without his help.

"As I thought… Your kind wishes for nothing more," Kon spoke out before the crowd, saliva escaping the corner of his mouth, "Spread it… like the plague…"

Footsteps followed up from the side of the stage, "A Shadow…" spoke out a voice that was quite familiar to the boy. It was Goro, and his voice trembled hard… "Tell me… why are you here?"

Kon closed his eyes and smiled, "To give your kind what it wants… That is my one and only reason… and a reason which many have failed in trying to achieve," he spoke, "I will not be like them…"

"… What's going to happen…?" Goro shivered.

Kon looked up and shook his head, "A lot is going to happen… And you, my fine sir… will lead the way."

Goro stared, puzzled by the Shadow's words. It was then that he felt a set of hands grip his shoulders and legs. A number of people from the crowd had wandered onto the stage and Goro knew that he would have to keep his distance. But there were a lot of them… It was something Goro soon realized when at least four people piled against him, one trying to hold back his arms from behind. His struggles to break free were in vain with the immense amount of bodies that were using their strength-in-numbers logic to keep him weighted down. Even his legs were pinned to the point where he couldn't kick.

Goro made a few short stomps on the ground and grit his teeth, "You're animals… let me go, damnit!"

Nearly every person in the group slowly shook their heads. They presented crooked smiles and muttered 'nope' until it sounded like some sort of demonic ambience. Even Goro could tell that they didn't seem right in their minds at all.

"You're ours…" "Ours!" they uttered with excitement.

Kon stepped back and bowed his head, "Thank you, Goro… and goodbye."

It was then that the cycle had been completed and repeated. It was a cycle which would result in human decay and an unavoidable series of events that would silently take the cities of Yagokoro, Inaba and Tatsumi Port Island by storm. The ability which had been dubbed Kagenuki (Shadow Extraction) by Goro would become a growing phenomenon and the only chance Goro would ever have of finding Kon again. When the boy left the club, he had taken Goro's backpack, along with his old clothing and all the photographic evidence. However, the most important thing that Kon had left the club with that night… were Kage's memories. His real memories. For nearly a month, he would live in complete isolation. Knowing what he had become and what had made him this way… Indeed, much of what Kage had done that night was beyond his control. Something else had surfaced within him when he caused that outburst at the club; something that was very slowly progressing into the deepest regions of his mind, fracturing his memories and causing him anguish. It had all happened so slowly… but now that he was aware of it, the little Shadow realized that he was losing control over his own body. Something else was winning… A cancer, a parasite… Kage knew that he would only have one chance at stopping whatever it was that was welling inside of him. He would only have one chance to kill himself.


	24. Chapter 24 - L

**Animus**

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_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

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April 9th, 2013, Tuesday

The spring wind rustled and pushed the many trees that bordered Shinri High. It was the perfect day to be outside in general if you didn't mind the damp grassy flooring and the trickles of dew that escaped from the leafy canopy whenever the wind hit it just right. A strange aura could be felt the moment Kon entered the forests and he kept this gaze down as beads of water fell against him.

There were at least thirty different students in the area, all wearing the standard cream coloured uniforms in accordance to Shinri's dress code. Within the group, a few students began stepping back to make space for him: an individual who, amidst all this colour segregation, stood out like a sore thumb. Dressed from head to toe in black, Kon wore the same male uniform that Goro had given him at Club Burlesque a month ago. Kon was virtually impossible to identify, since he had decided to wear a thin hoodie underneath the uniform and sunglasses over his eyes. With the hoodie up, he was physically anonymous, and chose to be so considering the things he knew.

Intent on maintaining the spread of his powers, Kon was already in the process of performing on another student. With hands on her neck, he leaned forwards and whispered into her ear, "Cybele…"

The momentary look of unease on the girl melted away as they both dipped their heads down and focused, feeling the wind stir between the branches of the trees. Then, all at once, the wind in the area kicked up and a mass of birds lifted into the air. As if triggered by a hunter's gunshot, they screeched and fled the scene before anyone else could sense that something was wrong. All heads turned to the female student as her eyes snapped open and for a brief moment, seemed to flash an opaque pink colour. Completely lost in a wave of sensations, she emitted incomprehensible noises and gripped at her head. Except for Kon, all other bodies stepped back and stared with dropped jaws.

There it was…

Floating above the female student was an undeniably complex, artificial form that comprised of metal and threads of light, all transparent and very difficult to comprehend. Remaining stationary, it seemed alive and aware of its surroundings, yet didn't express any aggression. No one ran…

From one side of the group, Kon could hear a pair of women talking back and forth. One of them… he was very familiar with.

"How…?" spoke out one; a much taller girl with auburn hair who clung to her friend.

"I don't know…" the other whispered back. Clad in the same cream uniforms as everyone else, the blue haired woman stared with confusion at the creature that floated before them. Naoto Shirogane…

"Perhaps you'd like to know," Kon spoke out in a low voice, turning towards Naoto and her friend. As he lowered his arms, the female student before him kneeled to the ground before slumping down onto her stomach, panting softly. As her expression normalized, the creature which hovered closely over her dissipated into the air. She seemed fine, yet weary.

The auburn haired girl held tightly to her friend and quickly shook her head, "Don't you dare…"

Naoto lidded her eyes. Looking over her shoulder, she passed a stern glance at her friend and whispered something that was just out of Kon's earshot. However, she then looked back forwards and called back out towards him, "I need to know what this is."

"Then come forwards and I'll show you…" Kon spoke, cracking his knuckles dramatically.

Naoto stayed her ground, "Tell us."

Kon wiggled his finger in response, shaking his head, "No no… Don't you believe that there are some things in life that are better learned through experience than through someone else's chewed up and regurgitated words? Why else am I here…?" he noted at the end, his gaze locked on Naoto. Such a stare only drew her forwards, like a challenge.

"Fine then…" she answered, bringing herself out into the center of the clearing, her friend reaching forward as if begging her to come back. The female student from earlier had already pulled herself back up and was chattering with another group over how amazing the experience had been. It helped ease the anxiety to know that this girl had survived without any obvious issues. And so, Kon repeated the process, his hands marked against the back of Naoto's neck.

"Yamato… Takeru…" he leaned forwards and whispered into her ear, causing Naoto to freeze on the spot. Her eyes opened wide as everyone else stared upwards as the oddest sound resonated from above them. As Kon let go of her and took small steps away, Naoto dropped and fell against the grass. A number of students also began to back away, and Naoto forced herself to get back up from off the ground. Just as Kon had called, he had come… Completely solid and standing was the prince, Yamato Takeru. Sword drawn, the wing-like cloth attached to his arms and back reacted to the breeze and his bright golden eyes stared through his bird-like helmet at Kon like a falcon with its claws out.

Breathing heavily, Naoto couldn't help but give a wry smile over Yamato's impressive stance. However, if one looked close enough, they would notice an odd, black substance coming from none other than Yamato's helmet, specifically the edge between metal and glass which gave the illusion of an elongated bird's beak, almost as if it were drooling. There was something off-putting about his appearance, for sure… Areas in his clothing were stained and tattered, like a toy that had been played with for far too long.

Kon reared back slowly, staring down the creature in front of him with an intimidated face. He knew why he was here… and why he had summoned this creature before him. There was only one thing in the world that could subdue and ultimately kill a Shadow… and that was a Persona.

All it took was one more step backwards and Yamato lunged forwards of his own accord, the edge of his helmet prying open and spilling quarts of oil behind him. Rows of deformed, scissor-like fangs gnashed from the helmet, his blade aimed at Kon. In an instant, the sword impaled a great distance through the Shadow's shoulder and sent a stream of red splashing down into the oily mix on the grass. Pinned up to a tree by Yamato's blade, Kon felt his memories flash before him.

Screaming students fled from the forest just as quickly as the flocks from earlier had flown away, their stomachs building up in their necks from the atrocious sight. Naoto fell silent, her mind unable to wrap around what just happened. As she watched Yamato vanish in an ethereal glow, Kon's body dropped off the blooded tree and hit the messy ground. The last thing Kon heard was the sound of running footsteps and Naoto's friend yelling her name before he too lost all consciousness, his mind exhausted.

April ?, 2013

Where he had come from and where he had gone… the Shadow reminisced over his feelings; feelings that he had discovered during his time with that blue haired woman. He could feel sadness… and loneliness… and right now, very little else. He felt like something was coming to an end, and all that he had left was the understanding that he had failed to stop himself. He wasn't dead… but he definitely felt lost. There was nothing but darkness where he was, as if his eyelids wouldn't open, but he was very much awake. His body wasn't doing what he wanted it to do… and right now, all he wanted to do was wake up, find his way back to Naoto, and say how sorry he was for causing all of this. He knew what sort of events would play out in her life for the next few weeks. The times they would spend together, the adventure to Inaba, the disputes they'd have and the learning that he would do… There was a lot that he could foretell, and a lot that he wished he could have done differently. But… he wouldn't be able to change any of that. He couldn't even open his eyes.

If felt so similar… that sensation of warmth and protection. He was somewhere safe, like he had been before. But this time, the repetitive sound of a heart beating was replaced with the repetitive sound of a machine beeping. Was it his…? Did his heart sound like that? The Shadow struggled inwardly to understand where he was… and it would be quite some time before he'd know. But eventually, the day did come where his body decided to wake up. Eyes fluttering open, he rested upon a bed in a stale white room that smelled of antiseptics and used mop water. This was… a hospital smell, wasn't it…? It was at least very similar. Eager to look around the room to confirm his suspicions, the Shadow soon realized that… well, he wasn't able to. He couldn't turn his head… With surprise, he quickly realized that his body was actually moving by itself. Or at least, it wasn't doing anything that he wanted it to do…

It glanced over at the machine which beeped out repetitively at him; a heart monitor machine. Indeed, he was hooked up to a lot of things… a lot of very intimidating things. Feeling a smile creeping upon his face, his arm lifted and his eyes scanned over his hand. Clenching his fist and moving his fingers a few times, he seemed to be testing out his motor controls. At the side of the room was a wide mirror which reflected in the sunlight from an even wider window. The Shadow's head turned towards the mirror and stared with golden eyes at himself, his sweaty blue bangs draped over his forehead.

"It's mine now…" his voice spoke out.

April 14th, 2013, Sunday

The Shadow sat upright in his bed and surveyed the rest of the room. The door looked like it was closed with a simple lock, and the window could be easily broken… It seemed like the people who had brought him here weren't aware of what they were dealing with. Escape wouldn't be an issue. So, feeling like he had already overstayed his visit, he leaned towards the side of the bed and tried to slide off. However, he was immediately jolted and pulled back onto the bed.

"Hgn…!?" he gasped with surprise and tried again, quickly realizing that something was holding him back to the bed. His hands felt across his arms, legs, body, and then finally the back of his head where he realized that he had been attached to some sort of device. And not just something on the surface like the heart monitor's leads, but something that was integrated fully into the delicate wiring and electronics in the base of his skull. If he tried to move away from this thing or pull it out, who knows what kind of damage he'd risk…

Feeling his hands down the mechanical device, he learned that it was connecting him into some sort of support system affixed to the bed, which was then plugged into an outlet on the wall. Essentially, unless he could carry the bed and another power source with him, he wasn't going anywhere. Unamused by this series of events, the Shadow folded his arms and pouted slightly. Only when he heard the unlocking and clicking of the door in front of him did he quickly look back up with a relieved look on his face. He wasn't entirely trapped here… At least people were coming to visit. There were two this time… only one of which he had very strong memories of. They were older men, one short and round, the other tall and lean. The round man had dark red hair and was recognizable through memories that weren't entirely his own. But the tall man, with short grey hair and piercing eyes was someone he had definitely met before.

"Tetsuma Tsuge and Isamu Miyagi…" the Shadow spoke out, curious to know if he was right.

Tsuge clapped his thick palms together a few times, "Good, you still recognize us… Then the extraction process has been, to a degree… a success."

"Extraction process?" the Shadow blinked.

Isamu leaned forwards, "You know who you are… do you not? And I do not mean in regards to this body… I mean you, the one speaking right now. Who are you…?"

"Ah…" he looked down and blinked, "I am the Shadow of a man who passed away a long time ago. Through a rather extraordinary series of events, I now reside in this body… but it is not my own. As well, because it is not my own… I fear that I am having trouble recalling my name," the Shadow closed his eyes and frowned.

"Then you are indeed who we have been looking for…" Tsuge crossed his arms and smiled to the man across from him, "Welcome back, Makoto. And if you should have to recall it, Makoto Nakamura was your host's name… he who died a long time ago. We thought that you had also been lost in the Tatsumi Port Island explosion ages ago."

Isamu nodded, "It was indeed a surprise to find you over a decade later… residing in a completely different body. Tell me, how did you come to be this way?"

The Shadow lifted his hands, "Please, back up for just one moment… How do you know Makoto-san…? And what was this extraction process you spoke of?"

Isamu sighed, "Then your memories have indeed been jumbled up more than we thought… Tetsuma and I were there when you were created. When you were pulled from Makoto Nakamura's body, we were all working as a team in the Kirijo Group facilities. You were… a secret project of ours. Something we never intended on showing anyone until we could verify that you were stable and safe to humans. Unfortunately, someone gave us away and we had to dispose of you or cage you up like the rest. Unable to put our beloved Shadow to its death, we decided on the latter…" Isamu explained, "There shouldn't have been any way for you to escape when the explosion happened… but you did, didn't you? And now, here you are… in the body of another Shadow. The extraction process that I spoke of earlier has been our attempt at removing the previous Shadow from your body. So far, we've successfully removed and erased a number of its memories and internal information. I say it was a success because… well, clearly you've obtained control over the body. Additionally… and this was quite unexpected… we found an alarming amount of MyPlace and other social media data within the old Shadow's coding. It would seem that you stumbled into the body of a rather devious hacker, Makoto. This data… will be most valuable, I think."

"I'm sure we could enjoy a small lump of ransom money for its safe return, hmn…?" Tetsuma eyed his friend.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Tsuge… We have something else far more valuable before us right here…" Isamu smiled lightly at the Shadow, "I'm sure you're concerned about your current… setup. There's no need to worry. The appendage affixed to your neck is a required device for the extraction. Soon, you will be a free Shadow, Makoto… Out with the old, and in with the new."

"Hmn…" the Shadow closed his eyes and felt the tubing behind his head again. Though the old Shadow had no control over this body, its thoughts still rang through perfectly clear. He could still hear it screaming and crying… "I see. Then I will just have to wait patiently, won't I…?" he smiled, "And then this body will be mine… But first, since I'm well aware that this body has already been called far too many things throughout its lifetime, how about we just stick with… Kon?" he watched Isamu as he spoke.

Isamu nodded slowly, "There are some pretty heavy sentiments that go along with that name, aren't there…? Well, if you so wish, Kon…" he spoke, pulling up a chair so he could sit next to the bed with the Shadow, "Now then… About how you obtained this body?"

Kon's smile curled, "… Wouldn't you say that you've already forced enough memories out of my head…? Perhaps there are some that I'd rather keep to myself… for now."

April 25th 2013, Thursday

Naoto had spent the remainder of her Wednesday waiting… hoping… for a sign from her computer. But there was nothing… And by the end of the day, the Shirogane Estate was housing everyone from the Investigation Team, the two Anti-Shadow Suppression Units, and even Touko who had caught up on the news the moment she had woken up. After spending a fair amount of time reminiscing… and even grieving… the team decided to visit Mitsuru Kirijo in order to have Ai and Sousei stripped of their manual overrides. After the operation, both of the androids would be required to stay locked up in the labs. However, Naoto had no plans for leaving Sousei behind. All they would need was one day to set everything straight… to find Tsuge, Kon, the missing individuals from Tuesday, and to ensure that the SSWs returned safely to the Kirijo lab.

"And what if they turn on us while we're heading to Inaba or Tatsumi Port?" Kanji questioned the trustworthiness of the androids as they did a small check-up on everyone's motorbikes before heading out.

"They won't…" Naoto shook her head, "The reason why they haven't been a threat to us since yesterday is probably because we've amassed a group of Persona users around them. Tsuge wouldn't be foolish enough to fight a battle that he knows he can't win." Regardless of that fact, no one would be riding Sousei or Ai on their trip. The androids would follow along on their own with the usual holographic projections hiding their identities. The most anyone could do was be prepared to avoid a surprise attack from them. However, with their awakened Personas available, the Investigation Team was hardly defenseless. "Speaking of which… Have you noticed any activity from your own Persona yet, Kanji-kun?"

Kanji frowned and shook his head, "Nah… looks like it's just them. Yukiko said that she caught Ai doing something odd to her the night before, right…? It's just a thought, but… maybe the SSWs made this possible somehow."

"That's what I was thinking…" Naoto nodded, "And the night that it happened, Sousei had already left us… so we haven't been in contact with the SSWs until now. Still, you've been unable to summon yours, and mine is…" Naoto slowly lowered her head.

"… But Sousei did something to your Shadow, didn't he?" Kanji spoke up, giving Naoto no time to think over Kage's demise. "He might have awakened him as well… You've just been too wrapped up in what you saw to think otherwise."

Naoto's hands balled up, "Kanji, I spent nearly three weeks with that Shadow here. He was always beside me… Even during the days when I had work, school, or was otherwise out of the house, I could still feel his presence. As long as he was within this world, I knew exactly where he was and whether or not he was safe," she explained, "I have never felt that kind of connection to anyone before… And because of that, only now do I realize that I'm not feeling it anymore. Nor do I sense him within me… Simply put, we need to look ahead and accept the reality of it, Kanji-kun."

Kanji folded his arms, "But do you…? You sure spent a long time in front of the computer yesterday… What was all of that for?" he scoffed a little, "Don't kid yourself… You expected him to come back."

Naoto bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, "Let's just… gather the others and go…" she demanded, keeping her gaze on the motorcycle and away from Kanji.

With a reluctant sigh, Kanji began to turn back towards the estate, but stopped himself when he noticed a faint quiver in Naoto's shoulders. He stood still for a moment and watched as it passed. "Y'okay…?" he asked up.

Naoto simply nodded.

Not too convinced, Kanji walked back towards her, but was met with immediate defense as Naoto turned away and covered up her face with an arm. Despite that, she stood perfectly tall and composed, but Kanji could still see the quiver in her shoulders returning. "…" In silence, he set a hand down on her shoulder and kneaded his thumb comfortingly against her neck. She didn't have to show it… but Kanji could tell that she was crying. When the faint shaking stopped, he let her go and returned back to the estate in order to call everyone to attention and to give Naoto a moment to herself. It would be a long ride as usual… this time making multiple trips across two different cities, all in one day. Though it would be a long trip, it was a necessary one. There were things that Naoto needed to revisit, and safety measures that needed to be taken care of. These were preparations for war… and from the looks of things, Tsuge was just as equally prepared. But whether that was true or not, all of their suspicions would finally be verified tomorrow.

* * *

When the group arrived at Inaba, their most immediate destination was the grave site of Kanji's mother. Naoto had not given a very clear explanation as to why she wanted to revisit this spot in particular; only that something about the hole from before had bothered her. According to her, it was a very unnatural hole. One that looked like it should have been dug outwards from the grave rather than into it. Like the kind of hole a zombie would make after rising from the dead… Not that anyone brought up that analogy, of course. Kanji wouldn't have appreciated it.

"Well… I'm back again, mother," Kanji spoke out with a hand behind his head as they stepped towards the burial site. One issue that the group had to notice was that the hole from before had already been filled in by Kanji himself. Back then, no one expected this act of vandalism to be a crucial piece of evidence, but they had methods of dealing with this obstacle now.

"Well… what are you going to figure out from this now?" Chie mentioned with a half frown, staring at the perfectly serene site. Nothing seemed to be out of place.

"Nothing yet… However, I should mention how fortunate it is that we still have Rise-chan with us at the moment," Naoto mentioned, looking over at her ex-classmate. "Are you, by any chance, able to bring Kanzeon here with us?"

Kanzeon, Rise's Persona, was a tall figured woman with satellite motifs and the ability to detect the presence of individuals and Shadows. She was a vital asset during their trips to the TV realm, being also capable of scanning out Shadow's abilities and weaknesses. In a way, she was like a more advanced Sousei when it came to information detection.

Rise slowly nodded, "I can… But what exactly are you expecting her to do?"

"I'm not sure if this is within your range of abilities, so I understand if this is an impossible request… But I would like to know the state of Mrs. Tatsumi's grave without having to physically damage the site any more than it already has been," Naoto mentioned, "I fear we didn't see everything that we should have the first time we came here…"

Rise set two fingers to her temple and contemplated that request. She seemed to be communicating with Kanzeon inwardly, asking her Persona if such a request was doable. The moment Rise received a clear answer, the Persona manifested itself behind her and proceeded to scan the surrounding area. Holding a reader within both of its hands, the Persona lowered it to Rise's eyes and proceeded to send the young girl a slew of valuable information. Not just the state of the grave, but the status of everyone and their Personas as well. Rise tried to focus on just the grave alone, since she already knew her friends and their abilities quite well… but a few unexpected things also caught her attention. When she was finally done with Kanzeon, the Persona dissipated into a fading glow and Rise stood in silence before the tomb. "… You were right," she whispered lightly.

Naoto looked up, "Well, I haven't hypothesized anything yet… I only suspected that something was wrong."

"No, not that…" Rise blinked, and then quickly shook her head. "But about the grave… that was right, too. It looks like something shredded and broke through Mrs. Tatsumi's coffin. The point of impact was from inside… or at least, I assume so, since there were no scratches on the surface of the casket. But inside… something definitely fought its way out."

"Something the size of the hole?" Naoto confirmed.

Rise nodded, "Oh, yes, it was very small… Though with respect, I didn't look at the state of Mrs. Tatsumi's body… I don't think I could have, even if I was asked to."

"And I would never ask you to do such a thing…" Naoto closed her eyes and pondered over the information she had just received. Something had happened here… something very unnatural.

Kanji could barely fathom it. Then again, the death of his mother had been so immediate and unexpected. Maybe it was about time that he got some answers…

"You were going to say something else, though?" Naoto looked back up to Rise. "Something else that I was right about?"

Rise folded her arms together and bit her lower lip hard. Whatever was stewing around in her mind now was obviously something very controversial. "I… I don't know if I can say it with everyone else here…" she admitted, "But… Kanji has every right to know this. So… so…"

Kanji immediately stepped forwards, "Is it about Ma…!? There's no way you're holding this back from me, Rise. Out with it…!"

Rise's hands shook, "It's… that… I'm not sure how or why… but in the middle of my scanning, I picked up the presence of a Shadow here… It's so faint… almost non-existent… and that's because it's not here anymore. But I guarantee you there was a Shadow here months ago…"

"A Shadow?" Teddie quickly stepped forwards and set himself down on all fours on the ground, sniffing quite awkwardly while in his human body. When his nose passed over the spot where the hole used to be, he quickly sat back up and his eyes shot towards Naoto.

Taken back, Naoto quickly blinked, "What…?"

"…" Teddie and Rise both shared a common glance before they both looked back to the detective prince, pupils narrowed. "It's your Shadow, Nao-chan… Your Shadow was here two months ago," Teddie explained in a small voice.

There was enough tension in the air that it could be cut with a knife. Naoto had been brought to complete silence. This was something she had feared… something she didn't want to even imagine was possible, but yesterday during Kage's death, the computer had spouted a barely comprehensible backtracking of dates until it landed on the day before Mrs. Tatsumi's death. What it had looked like… was that a file Kage had placed upon the computer had rewound itself back to a time where it didn't even exist on her PC… and then disappeared. The entire procedure looked pointless from a logical standpoint. No computer file could just thrust itself backwards through time. It was just spouting numbers… But when you added a Shadow into the mix… it all became a completely different story. These were creatures capable of time and space manipulation. As Mitsuru would always so gracefully put it… 'Shadow science'. From that standpoint, the possibility that Kage had travelled through time via the Internet became all too realistic. But then… how could he have reappeared into this world? From an electronic charge to… here… How was that even possible? Regardless, there was a sound chance that Rise's newly acquired information was true… And that brought about a most horrible realization.

"He made this hole…" Kanji finally cut the silence, his eyes wandering towards Naoto, "Your Shadow did this to her…"

Naoto's body trembled as she stepped backwards. There was no other explanation for it… "But… But I don't sense him anywhere… As I told you earlier, no matter where he is in this world, I've always been able to sense him…"

Kanji closed his eyes, "Then he died again shortly after… Remember, this was two months ago… during the winter," he reminded, "He probably froze to death… After a strong-willed attempt to save his own life, and all he did in the end was kill my mother…"

"I'm sorry…" Naoto whispered out, feeling her legs going weak, "I'm so… s-so sorry…"

Kanji didn't know how to react… With two very important people in his life and one having been the cause of death for the other… he couldn't understand what he was supposed to feel. Should he comfort Naoto…? Or hate her? In the end, this was never her intention… but the fact that her subconscious self had decided very particularly to kill his mother and no one else… that was the most bothersome part. Why 'his' mother…? Why her?

Touko got there first. With an arm wrapped behind Naoto, she was ready to catch her friend if she needed to collapse. Naoto held her ground… but this was easily the most involved twist that her investigations have ever brought her to. It was hard to swallow…

The one to finally speak up and put a logical stamp on everything was Narukami, his voice as calm and poised as ever, "It's in the past… There's no sense in arguing over something that we were never around to see…" he spoke, "Especially when we still have so much ahead of us that needs to be dealt with. The safety of our cities could be waiting on us…"

"Yeah…" Kanji answered, his voice light and relaxed again. He looked over to Naoto who was still clearly troubled by what had happened. Feeling a great amount of guilt for putting her in this position, he walked over and Touko eagerly let him replace her as Naoto's comfort crutch. Holding her close, he whispered that everything would be okay, and that they would have to move on. She answered with a silent nod, knowing that they could always settle amends later. For now, they still had the trip to Mitsuru's to make…


	25. Chapter 25 - P

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

Kanji was the one to make the drive for both him and Naoto this time. Though they were both distracted by the events that had just passed, Kanji had been at least prepared to find out why his mother had died. Naoto, on the other hand, couldn't have possibly expected Kage to be the perpetrator. She was silent throughout the entire ride, lost in her thoughts and the overwhelming possibilities that came with the fact that Kage had been here since the very beginning… Since two months ago, no less… A lot of things were finally connecting and making sense. Indeed, the wheel of fortune was coming around full circle.

When they arrived at Tatsumi Port Island, Mitsuru Kirijo was waiting for the group at the gate with a smile. "Welcome back. Though, I realize it has been a longer time for some than others…" she said, her eyes trailing over to Touko, "And for those visiting for the first time, I welcome you as well. I am Mitsuru Kirijo," she spoke specifically to the auburn haired girl, holding out her hand.

"The famous Gekkoukan High… I've always been eager to see it," Touko answered, shaking the woman's hand as well, "Thank you… I'm Touko Aoi."

Mitsuru nodded, "A trusted friend of everyone here is a trusted friend of mine… Though I have to mention that where we are going is a concealed, unspoken of section of the school that I hope no one here would have the audacity to speak of when we're done, hm?"

A few members of the group blinked at Mitsuru's choice of words.

"Rules 1 and 2 of the Kirijo Labs," Kanji waved a hand, "Do not talk about the Kirijo Labs."

The Investigation Team 'ahhh'd with understanding.

Nodding, Mitsuru stepped towards Sousei and Ai and walked along with them as they all progressed into the school. She insured everyone that the procedure to remove the manual overrides from the two androids would take no longer than 15 minutes each, but because the day was now already well into the evening due to the long travel time, it would still be very late by the time everyone returned back to the estate. They would have enough time to rest… and then while they were all gathered in one place, they would take the opportunity to pursue Tsuge the very next day.

While waiting for Mitsuru to finish her work, the group stayed within one of the lab's main lobbies and made small talk with Labrys who was able to freely adventure around the school as she wished. Ai would soon be in the same state. Trapped, but free at the same time… And Sousei knew that depending on the results of their mission tomorrow, he too might have to give up his freedom.

Naoto watched as Labrys eagerly apologized to Kanji and herself for her previous actions, showing that she meant no harm. It was nice to see how human-like and sympathetic these androids could be… but deep down, Naoto feared for their future. If any of the roaming SSWs had been caught during their outbreak yesterday, then it would be very easy for the government to blame them for damages and shut all of them down. Perhaps they would even go as far as to close up the Kirijo Labs as well… Pondering this, Naoto realized that Mitsuru probably had all the same fears.

After nearly half an hour, the lobby doors reopened and Ai was the first to run through, hopping up to Labrys with a chuckle, "We're all better, onee-san!"

Labrys wrapped her mechanical arms around her sister and they embraced happily. There was no doubt that Labrys had been terribly lonely this whole time, and greatly appreciated that one of her sisters was finally returning.

Sousei and Mitsuru followed after. The woman would be the first to speak up, "Reactivated, polished and good to go… This old machine shouldn't give you any more problems," Mitsuru referred to Sousei with a smile, "As long as you keep this under wraps, alright…? When you're done, you'll have to return him here immediately…"

Naoto nodded in response, looking at Sousei who seemed to be a little downhearted about that fact.

"This might be the last time that I get to work with you, Shirogane-san…" he spoke up. Unfortunate, but true… "We have no time to waste…"

Mitsuru closed her eyes, "Now hold on, you're not running out of here that fast…" she interrupted him, "Actually, Shirogane… there is one thing that I'd like to briefly discuss with you. Alone, if that is alright…"

Naoto nodded as she stood. Passing by Sousei, she gave him a small comforting tap on the shoulder before following Mitsuru back through the doorway, ready to hear her out. Walking into a small hallway, they entered through another set of doors until they were at a far enough distance that no one in the lobby would be able to hear them. It was a quiet room, probably designated to storage.

"I wanted to ask… Have you been alright? I mean, after you Shadow… you know…" Mitsuru asked.

Naoto sighed. Just another pity conversation? She had already had enough of those… "I don't entirely know… I can't say for certain if he's even gone. At first, I thought so… but now I'm not so sure."

"You believe that he's still out there?" Mitsuru questioned.

"Perhaps…" Naoto nodded, "It's not very likely, I know… But it's not impossible either."

Mitsuru folded her arms and looked off to the side, "Then… I suppose this is something you need to know. It might not have occurred to you, perhaps because you don't have the same sensing abilities that Rise and my Personas both share… but if you did, you would have noticed that a few Personas within your group have been… displaced. Actually, I get the feeling that Rise noticed it already…"

Naoto tilted her head to one side, "What do you mean by displaced? Who's?"

"To start… there's Kanji's. There is also mine. A number of old friends of mine, such as Akihiko's… And now, there is yours…" Mitsuru answered, "Simply put… our Personas do not exist within us anymore."

Naoto was perplexed. Her own case made sense… since Kage couldn't succeed at the challenge of living in the human world after being pulled from her. But Kanji's and Mitsuru's? "I don't understand… what happened to your Personas? Also, I thought that Kanji had his the last time we visited?"

"They passed on… as any living thing eventually does. You might have wondered why there are no adult Persona users in existence… The truth is that one's Persona simply doesn't live that long. Shadows live almost eternally… but once they have taken a vow to become your Persona, they greatly limit their lifespan in order to protect your own. It usually happens when one 'comes of age', so to speak. Your Persona simply… slips away," Mitsuru explained, "And it usually happens without notice. For me, I wouldn't have noticed at all without all this technology surrounding me. There just came a day when I learned that Artemisia wasn't within me anymore. For Kanji, I can imagine that his Persona passed away quite recently, and most likely after we absorbed that haze out of your bodies. As for whatever happened to yours… I can already say that whatever it was, it was quite inevitable."

Naoto squinted her eyes with disbelief, "So that's it? Let's ignore the state I found Kage in… Ignore the fact that he was plugged into my computer, ignore the fact that Sousei snuck into the estate after him, and most of all… ignore the fact that Kage might have been the one who killed Kanji's mother two months ago…"

Mitsuru's eyes widened a little. She wasn't aware of that last fact.

Naoto continued, "Ignore that entire setup… and let's say that he just conveniently died? Of old age? That's all it was?" she was in perfect disbelief, "No… Something else happened yesterday, something miraculous. I can't say what… But I know for a fact that Kage was in no way showing any signs of … dying."

Mitsuru closed her eyes, "Yes, he was… Very clearly."

Naoto shook her head, "When?"

"You saw the state that Sukuna Hikona was in… You saw how adamant he was about staying in his Shadow form and how much it hurt him to switch out of it. I saw the whole thing over our webcam calls… That tattered, broken Persona of yours was definitely dying."

That was true… Both times, when Naoto first saw Yamato Takeru and Sukuna Hikona, they were both in incredible pain. The ooze that dripped from Yamato's helmet… that was blood. He was internally bleeding. And the state that Kage was in after temporarily transforming into Sukuna Hikona… he had passed out after mere minutes of taking on that form. It had never occurred to Naoto, but only now did she realize how odd it was that Kage couldn't handle his Persona form, yet Yu, Chie and Rise were all able to gracefully equip theirs. "So…" Naoto lowered her head, "You really think that he's gone…?"

Mitsuru sighed, "I'm only commenting on what I saw… But the likelihood of your little Kage still being alive is… almost unreasonable. I don't know what happened in that room with him and Sousei, but I can assume that it was likely what pushed him off the edge. I… simply don't want you to have false hope, especially considering how important the next few days are going to be for you."

Naoto looked up with another tilted head.

Mitsuru smiled faintly, "Two days from now… isn't it going to be your-?"

"I'm not celebrating it…" Naoto answered bluntly, "Not after all this… Not without Kage."

"Hm… I'm sorry…" she tilted her head down, "Maybe you're already regretting hearing this conversation… or maybe it was exactly what you needed to hear. Either way, all I can do is sympathize over your loss and wish you the best of luck tomorrow."

Naoto looked up at the other woman with a sharp stare, a hint of bold assertiveness in her eyes. 'Best of luck'…? What arcana did this woman think she was taking to? "No… I have no regrets," Naoto answered powerfully, arms crossed in front of her, "For anything…"

With that, Naoto turned to leave the room and made a fast paced walk back towards the lobby. When she reentered the room where everyone was waiting, she quickly hit a hand on Sousei's backside and issued them all to follow, "Rev up your engine, Wheels, we're making a bee-line towards Tsuge tonight."

The rest of the group looked up, some with groaning tired faces.

Naoto quickly looked over her shoulder at her tired friends, "We'll sleep when this is over. But not right now…" she spoke, stepping forcefully out the door. Her voice whispered aggressively low, "You're wrong, Mitsuru… Whether you believe it or not, I'm finding that damn miscreant of a Shadow tonight."

* * *

Pushed back onto the chilly, windy highway without the relief that they would be returning home to sleep, a number of people within the group felt extreme exhaustion during the ride back to Yagokoro. Most of all were Touko and Kanji, but Kanji at least had the benefit of riding on Sousei behind Naoto. If he had to nod off, then at least he wasn't the one driving. Still, a motorcycle was the last thing anyone wanted to fall asleep on.

Surprisingly, the rest of the Investigation Team showed perfect mental alertness. When they all came to realize this, Rise figured that anyone with an awakened Persona was probably being nurtured by their inner-deity's energy. It was indeed a strange feeling, having all of these psychological benefits in the real world and not just the TV. But if it helped, then it was worth it. The ride back to Yagokoro would take the team hours, and any small energy boost was a plus. Having left Tatsumi Port Island around seven-o-clock, it would be almost midnight by the time they returned.

Tracking down the specific building they were looking for wasn't a difficult feat. Mitsuru had already confirmed days earlier that the signal interrupting the SSWs systems was coming from a seemingly impoverished business building. At the same time, whenever there was android movement, they all seemed to be flocking back towards that building like worker ants to an anthill. Unfortunately, they never moved for very long, so it was impossible to survey exactly what they were doing, but it was at least obvious where they were going.

When the Investigation Team entered onto the building's property, they made their way into the parking lot with extreme caution. How many SSWs were watching them right now…? Sousei was able to register that a few dozen were in the local area, but none were activated. Realizing this, he suggested that maybe the team had come at a good time… or a bad time. If it was too late at night for the SSWs to be tampered with, then maybe Tsuge wasn't even here. The lights in the building's lobby were on, however, and there was nothing uninviting about the atmosphere. They would just have to find out for themselves… Taking parking spots at the edge of the lot where they were blind to the reception area, the team finally dismounted. Awkwardly.

Touko immediately fell onto all hands and knees once she had her bike braced, practically kissing the pavement. Everyone else hobbled with rump pains and tried to stretch out the kinks in their legs after the tedious travel. One long distance drive had been enough… Three in one day was just fiendish. Though, as expected, Naoto was the first to compose herself and she impatiently walked off towards the building's entrance.

Kanji quickly jogged up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Wait, yer seriously going to just walk on in…?"

"Do you have a better plan?" Naoto turned to look at him, "This isn't a very large building, but it's obviously run by a decent number of staff members. It is possible that the people here don't even know what their servers are being used for… Think of it that way, and I'm sure I can get someone to squawk once I announce that the recent accidents in Yagokoro are being pinpointed to their location."

Kanji frowned, "So you're giving away our motives that quickly?"

"I have to… If I'm the first person here, then this company should consider itself lucky," Naoto answered, "They'll trust a private investigator… In fact, they may even let me look around. I said that they're lucky because… I call the shots on whether or not I bring the police into this. I don't have to… if they cooperate."

"Then what about the rest of us?" Yosuke spoke up, "We don't have that kind of status."

"No, you wouldn't be able to just walk in… However," Naoto turned to Rise, "With your Persona, are you able to keep tabs on my location?"

"I can follow you through and through," Rise nodded. Mitsuru would be proud… it would be like Tartarus again, or perhaps the TV world's dungeons.

"Then it's simple. If I locate Tsuge or the SSWs, then I will signal to you where I am. If the situation gets dire, then I will let you know if I require your assistance," Naoto closed her eyes, "… I know this sounds selfish… but I hope that won't be the case. The police may be better fitted to handle the situation in this building. But… on certain circumstances, you should all know what kind of situations would require your help."

"So then, we're sitting ducks until you get yourself cornered," Kanji leered his eyes. He was both disgruntled with this plan, and very, very tried.

"Kanji-kun… I… I do think it might be best if you and Touko stay here where it's safe… Or at the most, return home and try to get some rest," Naoto suggested. She knew that request wasn't going to be met positively.

The boy clicked his tongue, "Don't be stupid, I ain't going anywhere."

"But you don't have your Persona…" Naoto spoke up.

"Then maybe I outta spend this time I've got down here trying to summon the old bastard up, shouldn't I? It'll be fine, Rokuten Maoh hasn't failed me yet. But don't you dare think that you can put me on the bench after everything we've been through now," he demanded.

Naoto knew how headstrong Kanji was… and how impossible it would be to make him see this her way. Especially because of the things she knew… Things that she really didn't want to tell Kanji right now. Her eyes glanced over to Rise with a subtle beg of 'don't let him do anything stupid'. Rise understood… She was the only other person in the group right now who knew that Kanji's Persona was long gone.

"Then… as long as I have everyone's trust," Naoto concluded. She had spent far too much time during her drive back to Yagokoro thinking over the situation. She didn't want to slow down now… "I'll be going, then…"

When Naoto turned away, the rest of the group retreated from the parking lot, lay flat behind the backside of the building and tried to remain inconspicuous. They found a nice location that, unless you were being directly searched for, you wouldn't easily be noticed. Especially in the darkness of the night. That fact made it a little difficult to see exactly where they were, though. There were a few garbage dumps, air vents and a doorway, but any signs were impossible to read. The team tried to conceal itself around the dumps and vents so that they wouldn't be seen if someone decided to come out through the door, but holding their position got gradually more difficult. There was a horrible, off putting scent in the air.

"What kind of garbage is this…?" Yukiko spoke up, an arm covering over her nose.

"Smells like Mystery Food X has a solid contender…" Yosuke answered, which was immediately responded to with a jab in the gut from Chie's elbow. No Yosuke was complete without self-deserved physical pain. "Ghk-…!"

"Ssh…" Sousei whispered.

Rise was trying to concentrate with Kanzeon, and through the rancid smell wasn't helping, she eventually got a lock on the building and its inhabitants. There weren't too many people in it this late at night, as expected… Soon enough, she was able to distinguish Naoto, who was still in the lobby room trying to weed her way into the complex. Following the detective's movements, Rise watched as Naoto conversed with the receptionist, and then moments later, took a seat within the same room. Rise blinked, "Well… she isn't getting herself kicked out. That's a good sign…?"

"What's going on?" Chie asked.

"I think she's waiting…" Rise spoke.

In the meantime, Kanji stood up straight and folded his arms before him. So far so good, it sounded like… In the meantime, he tried just as much to focus on his Persona as Rise was doing. Unlike her, though, he couldn't seem to communicate with the creature… which was unsettling. If Naoto did eventually need his help, what would he be able to do? Out of all the people here… why did he have to be the one with this problem? He knew it was egotistical, but… if anyone should be protecting her, he felt like it was supposed to be him. Frustrated by his incompetence, Kanji clenched his eyes shut and tapped his foot against the ground. It tapped repeatedly into a puddle… a rather odd, sticky puddle.

"Eh?" Kanji opened his eyes and looked down. Thanks to the brilliant light that Kanzeon couldn't help but emit, the surrounding area became a little more visible. The puddle he was thumping into wasn't clear and shiny like water should have been. It was dark, reddish, and even a little thick. Quickly stepping away from it, Kanji lowered his arms and followed the trail of the puddle. The same reddish liquid was pooled and dragged towards the doorway from the field that surrounded this side of the building. "O-oi… is anyone else seeing this?"

The rest of the team immediately stared downwards and took notice of the crimson trail, their stomachs getting caught in their throats when they considered the possibility of what it could be. "Blood…" Yu spoke up, resting a hand under his bangs in apprehension.

Her fingers shaking, Rise held tightly onto the visor that Kanzeon provided for her and did a thorough scan of the rest of the building; through the doorway, and through the entirety of the building's topmost floors. She bit her lower lip and stuttered when she tried to speak, "There are people beyond that door… A lot of unconscious people…" she spoke out, lifting her head upwards, "And up there… I fear that there is a Shadow in this building."

* * *

The ticking of the clock in the lobby room was the only thing keeping Naoto from being fully focused. The receptionist had already revealed that Tsuge was a member of this company simply by recognizing his name. However, he was out at the moment… How expected. In his place was another individual who was apparently of 'equal status', and he would be available to escort Naoto throughout the building. When she started hearing the heavy footsteps of another coming closer, she looked up and caught the attention of a grey haired man.

He stepped forwards with one hand folded in front of him and the other stuck out in greeting, "Good evening, Miss Shirogane. I am Isamu Miyagi, a close acquaintance of Tetsuma Tsuge."

Naoto stood and shook the offered hand, "A pleasure to meet you. I apologize for coming so late… There are plenty of things that I would like to discuss with you about your facility." Isamu… She knew this name. Sousei had mentioned it once before, though he wasn't certain if he had the right name at the time. Either way, that was the name of the individual who had supposedly replaced Naoto on the Shadow Extraction case. The one that Sousei had eavesdropped on and caught Tsuge discussing bizarre matters with.

"Then let us walk," he suggested, leading Naoto out of the lobby room. Once they were at a good distance down the hallway and into an elevator, he continued "I do not wish to alarm you… but I am very well aware of why you are here."

Naoto quickly looked up.

Isamu nodded, "We have something in common, you and I … Many things, in fact. We both work under Tsuge-san as private investigators and harbor an indescribable interest in the recent paranormal activity that's plagued our city these past couple of weeks. The difference between us is that I currently have Tsuge's trust… and you do not."

"I want to see this case come to an end just as much as you do, Miyagi-san," Naoto announced, "I do not see where and why Tsuge may have benefited from replacing me. I've come very close to realizing the reality of what Shadow Extracting is… Does he not trust that I will put this case to rest?"

"No… it's quite the opposite, really. You took an added measure somewhere during your investigation that forced Tsuge to disband his team and reconstruct it with only those who he knew that he could trust… Those that he knew would cooperate with him. The truth of the matter is that you wish to see this case come to an end…" the elevator chimed and opened when it reached the desired floor, "… but we do not. The things that you have learned should never become public knowledge. This case… it must be swept under the rug and forgotten."

Naoto balled her hands into little fists, "What added measure…!? You speak as if you know how severe this case is, yet you're not going to do anything about it?" she wanted so desperately to mention that real human lives were at stake, but instead, she merely muttered and tried to hold it back. How much did they actually know…?

"You killed someone…" Isamu looked down at her, "I believe his name was Goro Yagi?"

Naoto felt the blood in her face drain, "But… the cause of death was…"

"Compression… gas… shriveled organs and mental instability…? I know very well about it, I was there when the autopsy happened. Quite a sight… and certainly something that no human could do, right…?" Isamu shook his head, leading Naoto further down the hallway, "Don't go thinking that you're the only one who's aware of what Shadow Extracting is. How it spreads… what it does to the human body… and who started it all…"

Naoto knew the first two answers to that string of information, but the last one…? "You know who started it…?" she questioned, eyes widening.

"Why… you did," Isamu laughed softly, "Why else would Tsuge replace such a pretty little genius mind such as yours? You can feign ignorance for as long as you like… or perhaps you really were unaware all this time. But the one who's been at fault for everything is you… You're quite lucky that the only ones who know of this are Tsuge and I. You might say that we're… showing a bit of mercy on our end. We know your tactics… and we also know that you're completely unarmed and incapable of any further harm from this point on. I'd very happily let you go with a simple smack on the wrist at this point. There's nothing else you can do, anyways."

Naoto clenched her teeth together, "Where is all of this coming from…? Tsuge is clearly hiding information from you, Miyagi-san… I know very well that he's been using this facility to breach security at Tatsumi Port Island. Can you honestly say that you know nothing about that?"

Isamu stopped and turned towards her, "I most certainly can. Why are you speaking of Tatsumi Port Island…?"

"The Kirijo Group…" Naoto answered, watching as Isamu's confident expression changed, "He used to work there… and I'm almost beginning to suspect that you may have at some point as well. With what knowledge you know…"

"… That was a long time ago. We've severed ties with that facility for good… There should be no such remnants within this building," Isamu looked away.

"You got back your little pet, didn't you?" Naoto walked in front of the man and forced him to stay on topic, "You've got a Shadow here, don't you?"

Isamu stared down at her with his piercing eyes, a grin slowly crawling upon his face, "Well… that escalated rather quickly, wouldn't you say?" he smiled, "I wonder how you came to suspect that… You must have come quite a ways to figure that out. Or perhaps you've got some friends in high places… either way, I am going to denounce any evidence that you've got that might suggest that we've been invading Kirijo's precious 'security'…"

"You're just going to keep handing over information on a silver platter, aren't you? You seem to understand exactly what I'm saying… You know what Shadows are, and what the Kirijo Group deals with… You're aware of all of this, and yet you're still going to deny having connections to them?" Naoto shook her head. Isamu was right; this debate was escalating very quickly… Each time they spoke, they amazed each other with how much they knew and how integrated all of it was. "You must know what the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons are… They've been signaled towards this building multiple times now. Someone, somewhere in your facility, has them under complete control. If it's not you, Miyagi-san… then it most definitely has to be Tsuge. After all, you're the only two knowledgeable ones in this company, aren't you? You just said so yourself…"

Isamu stood still, looking genuinely perplexed. He was able to perfectly follow her train of thought… until she started mentioning the interference with the SSWs. At that point, his brow raised and his eyes shifted with thought. "Tsuge wouldn't do something like that under my nose…" he spoke with authentic confusion. "How do you know about all this?"

Naoto wasn't about to reveal Mitsuru's involvement in all of this. "I own an Anti-Shadow Suppression Unit, don't you know? You must have seen him around the station… Sousei Kurogami."

"Yes…" Isamu looked up.

"He's perfectly capable of tracking down his fellow androids. His brothers and sisters, so to speak…" Naoto spoke, "And they've been on the move… here, towards this very building."

Isamu lowered his head and continued to think.

"Now then…" Naoto continued, "Are you still convinced that it was me who started all of this?" It had to be Tsuge…! That rotten man… he would lie to his own companions just to get his way, wouldn't he?

"Thoroughly convinced…" Isamu answered.

Naoto rolled her eyes and hissed through her teeth once. How far gone was this man?

Isamu looked back up, "Do you want to see it then…? I said I knew why you were here… and I'm holding my ground on that statement. You came here to see the Shadow, didn't you?"

Right on the money… "Please."

"Then follow me… We're already on the right floor," he spoke. Indeed, from the very beginning, Isamu knew that the conversation was going to come to this. "You'll have to pardon his appearance… If my suspicions are correct, then it's been quite a few months since you've last met."


	26. Chapter 26

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

Naoto's heart pounded. Why… why would Isamu say that? Why would he phrase it that way? Meet this Shadow… Months… Suspicions? "No… no no…" she muttered under her breath as they turned towards another doorway, its handle barred shut with an extensive amount of locks.

Unlocking each mechanism, Isamu turned the handle and opened the door at an agonizingly slow pace. Naoto, at the same time, was opening her eyes after sending out a distress signal to Rise. All she could think to say was… 'please help me'. When the door was completely opened, she fearfully looked inside and in one split second, all of her suspicions became true. There, lying perfectly poised and upright on his bed was her Shadow. It was Kage. He was smiling, and his hands were folded so neatly in front of him that it was almost insulting how calm and collected he was, whereas Naoto was a completely different case. Her legs buckled once, and she held onto the doorway with a crushing grip. Just the sight alone seemed to knock the wind out of her.

"No…" Naoto whispered.

"Yes," the Shadow answered back.

Naoto quickly looked up, the amount of pure agony in her eyes burned almost as brightly as the gold in his, "NO," she huffed deeply, "Kage… you didn't…!"

"It's Kon," he flicked his name at her like a pebble to the forehead, folding his arms behind his head. The pillow he was resting back on was oversized and very comfortable looking.

"Y-you… I… How!?" Naoto breathed deeply. Her eyes glanced repeatedly between Kon and Isamu, fighting for a reason to understand. "The one… who pulled my Shadow from me… It couldn't have been my own Shadow, that's impossible…! You can't be in two places at once…!"

"But I was…" Kon answered with a soft smile, "I've been here for a long time now. I would say… almost four months now, if you include the time that I spent as your Shadow. This… 'Kage' that you speak of."

Naoto knelt down onto the floor and squinted her eyes, "Please… Please, I need to know why this is happening…"

"That's good, because I love story time," Kon smiled, also sitting up on the bed on his knees. He was garbed in nothing more than a standard hospital gown, allowing the twins tails behind him to freely sway about. The device that had been used weeks ago to absorb what remained of Kage out of his body had also been detached and the Shadow was now free to move around. But for his own reasons… Kon had decided to stay detained in this room. "Isamu-san, tell the poor girl how you found me."

Isamu nodded, "In the forests outside of Shinri High school, the police were dispatched to a scene after a Genkaku dressed student was reportedly injured there. Stabbed… apparently… And when we found the boy, I immediately recognized him. See… this Shadow of yours escaped from me months ago when he was brought to me by a certain… Goro Yagi. It was at that time that I believe Yagi-san was first Shadow Extracted. We saw… for a brief moment… his Persona. At that point, I was convinced that we needed to find this child again. Come April 9th, and there he was… lying in a pool of his own blood against a tree outside of your school," he explained. The chronology of all of this was difficult to absorb… "Now then… Tsuge and I both had very different thoughts. I had never met you before, Shirogane, but it immediately dawned on Tsuge that this boy… looked very much like you. Putting everything together, I realized that this creature was without a doubt… a Shadow. Your Shadow. We concluded that this boy would be left in our care and we took him to a 'hospital'. Here…"

"This isn't any old hospital…" Naoto shook her head, "You've done something to him… he isn't the same…!"

"No, it isn't," Isamu nodded, "And this most certainly isn't your Shadow anymore. See… inside your Shadow was—"

"Another Shadow," Kon immediately spoke up and interrupted Isamu. He was very much done with the other man now. "I am not your 'Kage'… That whiny child is no longer the holder of this body. In fact… I would enjoy going as far to say that he's never coming back. We sucked him out… It took almost a week… it was a very grueling process… but there is nary a trace of your Shadow left in this body. His memories, his consciousness, his… data…"

"Oh goodness, yes. We found a copious amount of MyPlace user data within that Shadow of yours. You had quite the little deviant on your hands…" Isamu laughed lightly, "Is the Internet delicious, Kon?"

The Shadow immediately struck a glare at Isamu and put the man in his place.

"I see now…" Naoto looked up with a glint of realization in her eyes, "That's how he was feeding… and that's how the data was recovered…" she looked over to the man, "Isamu… Have you been selling out my Shadow…? Is that why you kept him here?"

"If you're looking for a cut of the ransom money… then I might be willing to share. It was your elite hacker of a Shadow that made this happen, after all," he guffawed, arms crossed in front of him.

Naoto stared for a moment at Isamu. His casual-minded laughter… his complete and utter ignorance. She then looked back to Kon… There was a look in the Shadow's eyes. He wasn't comfortable with this conversation for some reason… "Yes, I see… He is an elite hacker, isn't he?" she asked Isamu, "And you've kept him within your facility for… how long? Nearly three weeks now?"

Isamu nodded with a soft grin.

"Then you're a terrible fool…" Naoto sighed, "Right under your nose… It wasn't Tsuge who was controlling those SSWs, was it?" She could see Isamu's expression going stale. "No… I'm willing to believe that this little Shadow of yours has had your entire facility tapped from day one… You thought you had him contained, didn't you? It's starting to sound like it might be the other way around… He's got your servers, your security, and your finances… all wrapped around his little finger."

Like pulling the trigger of a gun, Kon immediately sprung off the bed and lunged at Isamu, his jaw wide and unhinged. Naoto collapsed backwards and braced herself against a wall as the Shadow pinned the man to the ground, his teeth tearing past the man's clothes and through his skin. The reflex was so immediate… Kon never intended to keep this man alive, did he? What had just been said was probably the only information keeping Isamu safe. Now that Naoto was aware of Kon's involvement here… what else did he have to hide?

During that little spiel, the Investigation Team had scaled the side of the building with their Personas in flight. Within moments, they could be seen at the window to the room and after getting a glance of the horrifying scene inside, they were just as prepared to break through the glass and hold the Shadow down.

Kon stared up with a bloodied mouth at the approaching Personas. "Stop them!" he shouted to Naoto, a hand gripped around Isamu's neck, "Or I will kill him…"

"You were going to kill him anyways…!" Naoto battled.

"No, I'm simply knocking out his consciousness, there's something I need to tell you…!"

Flustered, Naoto watched as Chie's Persona, Suzuka Gongen, was braced to kick through the window. It was probably a bad move… but Naoto quickly hollered out and signaled for the Investigation Team to stay away. All at once, they stopped… Confused and worried, but they stopped.

The two conscious members of the room breathed heavily and stared hard into each other's eyes. Isamu was, as Kon stated, simply knocked out cold…

"I simply paralyzed his mind… he will awaken shortly…" Kon panted, rubbing off the blood from his lips with the sleeve of his gown. "I need your help… I need you to explain to me why your Shadow refuses to die…"

Naoto sat herself up and shook her head, "What do you mean…? Are you saying that he isn't dead?"

"Far from it…" Kon admitted, his eyes glancing down at Isamu, "I had this man convinced that every trace of your Shadow was long gone from this body… Believe me, it was something I wanted, too. But he refuses to leave entirely… There are parts of him that aren't being absorbed like they should be…"

Naoto felt almost a little proud of her Shadow knowing that fact… but she was still unable to explain anything. "I don't know anything about your methods, nor why you would be having trouble… If it's because Kage is somehow different as a Shadow, then maybe there's nothing you can do about it," she smiled softly, "He's too attached to this world… Maybe that's why he doesn't want to leave."

Kon glared, "Yes… There are certain fragments of his memory that I can't seem to remove. Memories that are almost… human. Separate from yours, I mean…"

"Sorry, but he never wanted to be human…" Naoto slowly shook her head, "Just because he developed his own memories while he was separated from me… I doubt that would be enough to turn him into one."

"No… these are memories from a long… long time ago. Not just from this year, but years previous. He's been holding onto such memories for a long time… developing his own consciousness apart from your own. He has been ever since… well, I suppose ever since he came to be," Kon lowered his gaze, "I was foolish to think I could live on in a body like this…"

Naoto lid her eyes and sat down in front of the Shadow, "Tell me something… How long have you been here? Within my Shadow, I mean…?"

Kon smiled lightly, "Again… ever since he came to be."

That answer surprised Naoto. It was her original thought that Kon had infested the body when Kage was Shadow Extracted that one night… by Kanji. But to think that this parasite has always been within him… it was hard to swallow. "Then… the Shadow that I met two years ago… in that 'secret laboratory'… that was you as well?" she questioned.

"Yes, that was both of us… it's always been the both of us," Kon shook his head, "You know about me… right? I am the Shadow of a man who died a long time ago… I was raised in a secret laboratory… the Kirijo Labs. I was experimented on, researched and altered… and then I was abandoned and forgotten when I was no longer needed. Yes, the Shadow that you met in the TV realm was very much the schizophrenic combination of our two minds… Your own, and a man who's name you know very well."

Naoto nodded, "Makoto Nakamura…"

"And what happened to this man? How did he die?"

"He died… in a car accident that consequently killed my parents as well," Naoto couldn't believe that this was actually coming together…

"Very good… Now it's story time," Kon spoke with a light smile, sitting up straight, "It was at that time… of Makoto's death… that I as a Shadow took the initiative to try and resuscitate his body. If my host died… then I would die as well. I couldn't let this happen… Although, I will admit that most Shadows don't exactly share that kind of common sense. I've seen my kind devour their hosts in order to fully enjoy their last seconds of life. Petty, and stupid…" he shook his head, "No… I saw that I was fading from this world and made that my advantage. Losing myself in this physical realm, I was able to freely escape my bonds in the Kirijo Labs. In my half-dead state, I sought out Makoto's dying body, but when I found it at the car crash… I made a brutal mistake. In my haste, I absorbed myself into the wrong body. I resuscitated the wrong person…" he stared up into Naoto's eyes, "I'm sure you're able to recall who the last person to survive that car crash was."

"My mother… She somehow miraculously lived for days after the car crash… in the hospital," Naoto answered.

"And when did she die…?" the Shadow's eyes flicked gold as he held out a hand.

Naoto stared down at it, a wash of memories coming back to her. Lifting her own hand, she locked palms with the creature in front of her, "When I visited her… I was holding her hand, just like this… and then without rhyme or reason, her vitals suddenly dropped. Within moments, she died in front of me…"

"I jumped…" Kon explained, staring hard into Naoto's eyes.

"To me…?"

"To you… and in that moment, your Shadow awakened and tried to fight me out. As a last defensive measure, I initiated my abilities as a cancerous Shadow and infested myself inside yours. I would stay hidden there for years… and thus, we bring ourselves back to the year 2013," he tilted his head to one side, "I've waited… And now, it is finally time for your Shadow to perish. He may act like a child… but when you think about it, he's actually very, very old… And in his wake, I wish to take over this body. But as you've seen… for some reason… he still refuses to die. Now tell me, why?" Kon let go of Naoto's hand and frowned, "What did you do to him? Why is he so persistent on living?"

Naoto brought her hand back to her side, "And what about you? What makes you think that you're above death…?" she asked, causing Kon's eyes to glare, "From your little story, I can summarize one very important fact… That you're much older than Kage. Shouldn't you be the one dying? Furthermore, since Nakamura-san died, what host do you have left…? Unless, ah… … yes, there's your problem…"

Kon sat up straight, "What is? What's my problem?"

Naoto couldn't help but smirk, "Did you really forget…? A Shadow cannot live without its host… Tell me, who's your host now?"

Kon's shoulders fell.

"That's right… it's Kage, isn't it? You can't erase him from this world… because the moment you do, you'll die as well," Naoto crossed her arms in front of her, "Shadow science…"

Kon's shoulders shook softly, and then even more so as a throbbing laugh developed and escaped from his throat, "Did you think that I was unprepared for that…!? What do you actually think that Shadow Extracting is!? Stupid… stupid human… The Shadows that die without hosts are those that starve to death. But believe me… I have all the sustenance that I need underneath this very building…"

Naoto lifted a brow, and Kon quickly put the tips of his fingers to his lips as if innocently saying 'oops~'.

"Did I just say something unsettling…? Hm?" Kon sat with a wicked grin crawling across his face, "That… haze… That substance that your kind has been spreading so voraciously for me. That is all I need to survive… It's powerful stuff, you know? You think that it's impossible for Shadows to survive in your world, when in fact, you humans have all the means to sustain us… This fact was the basis of Makoto's research. When he finally proposed it… and me… to the rest of the Kirijo Lab, his team was immediately disbanded and I was detained. Ah… how many nights I cried because of how lonely I was…"

_Why? Why are you leaving me here? Why am I always left alone?_

The words rung out in Naoto's mind. How frighteningly familiar… "You… could never stay here… You eat humans. Of course they would detain you."

Kon slowly shook his head, "That is what an unintelligent, untrained, imbecile of a Shadow would do… That is because in most cases, neither itself nor its host are aware that, even when separated, they can exist together in perfect symbiosis. That is the kind of world that Makoto would have wanted… one where Shadows and humans co-exist. To live together in a higher state of mentality with your Shadow… a perfect cooperation."

"Impossible," Naoto frowned, "Shadows are nothing more than a painful reflection of one's self. They do not have the means to aid humankind unless they become Personas."

"You're very caught up on that idea, aren't you…? I'm sure Kage would be insulted…" Kon smiled softly, "You see… we Shadows do not need to devour humans. Your bodies naturally produce everything that we need to live if we become separated… Think of it this way… When a mother is separated from her child via birth, she produces milk, doesn't she? When a Shadow is separated from its host… the host produces what we call 'kegare'. It is a form of negative energy… a highly toxic substance to the human body that must be drained or else the body will rot. We Shadows have the ability to absorb kegare. In fact… as I've already said, it is very powerful and quite delicious."

Naoto's pupils widened, "So… that's what the haze is?"

"Bingo~" Kon smiled innocently, "Human milk, for Shadows."

The concept of human-Shadow symbiosis was no longer as ridiculous as Naoto had first thought… But at the same time, it was a frightening concept. If such a world existed where Shadows prolonged the lives of their hosts by draining them of this… toxic kegare… then no matter which way you looked at it, Shadows would have complete monopoly over human life. They could live as companions, be smart enough to work, and have no other natural needs. But deep down… humans would become cattle, and Shadows would triumph as the dominating species on the planet. That… is what Shadow Extracting was trying to promote.

"You said… that you have all the sustenance that you need underneath this building. What did you mean by that…?" Naoto questioned.

"Ah, of course… I'm sure you were wondering what I needed all of those androids for," he rubbed the back of his head and shrugged, "See… I will need that kegare if I want to continue living. But at the present time, I don't exactly want to leave this building. So… I used the SSWs to bring the infected hosts to me instead. Simple enough."

"For fucks sakes, you're the kidnapper too!?" Naoto plastered a hand to her forehead, "The individuals that disappeared days ago…"

"- I kidnapped using the androids, paralyzed them, and brought them to this facility, yes," he smiled a little more. With Isamu knocked out cold beneath him, he was able to delve into this information without any worries. No one else had known about the situation with the SSWs… and that was because Kon was keeping it a secret the whole time. The moment it became obvious that Kon was using the facility to highjack Kirijo's weapons, that was the moment when he had assaulted Isamu…

"I see… There's definitely been a lot that you've wanted to tell me…" Naoto spoke, "Especially things that you wanted to keep hidden from Isamu and Tsuge…"

"Hm… you're starting to wonder… aren't you?" Kon looked up to the woman, "Why I'm so freely telling you all of this…"

"No, I know. You're going to kill me," Naoto answered, "All of this information would surely put a damper on your plans if it fell into the wrong hands. You plan to do away with me, and then shortly after, you plan on killing Isamu as well. We both know too much… don't we?"

"Oh, that's not the reason why I'm going to kill you," Kon shook his head. Hearing that coming from someone in her own body, using her own voice… it left Naoto trembling. Kon continued, "I believe I already verified with you that I do not need a host to live… I do not need your little Kage anymore. Since we've used up so much time thinking about it, I've come to realize that the only reason why I can't get rid of him… is because of you. You're still here… and therefore, so is he."

"I see… So you plan to get rid of Kage by getting rid of me. Sounds simple enough," Naoto nodded, lifting out her arms, "Well then… have at me."

Kon kept his ground, staring up and down at Naoto's challenging pose. "If I kill you…"

Naoto nudged towards the window where half a dozen Personas waited on the other side, "Then they will kill you."

"But not before I kill this man…" Kon spoke, staring back down at the floor where Isamu was supposed to be. But… he wasn't there. Surprised, Kon quickly stomped around on the spot and tried to figure out where Isamu's paralyzed body had gone, "Where…!?"

"You're quite the morbid little thing, aren't you…? You spent all that time talking about death and symbiosis and what-not… Through all of that, you didn't even realize it when Isamu came to his senses and slipped out of the room," Naoto smiled devilishly, "You can do whatever you want now… Either way… you won't live. All that matters in the end is who you plan on taking to your grave with you." Lifting a hand, Naoto raised an index finger and motioned for the Investigation Team to make their long awaited entrance.

As if they had been held back for far too long, all of the Personas humorously rushed through the glass and crashed onto the hospital bed and flooring. Some spread their wings; others lifted their arms and drew their weapons. They made cheesy poses as if they were super heroes coming to save the day.

Kon grit his teeth tightly, "Why do they have to exist…? These foul friends of yours…" Indeed, having an assemblage of ripe and ready to fight Personas on the other side of the room was the only thing holding Kon back now.

"Because I'm not alone…" Naoto stood up and stared down at the Shadow, "Now then… you still have one thing to explain to us. Now that Kanji-kun is in the room, I expect this to be answered promptly… Why, of all people… did you kill his mother?"

Kon was already getting rather sick of talking and question answering. His hands fisted in front of him as he spoke, "Heheh… that wasn't my choice. Kage was still in control of this body when it happened. I simply gave him the means to travel… Where he decided to end up was his own doing."

"Travel…?" Naoto blinked, "It was… in a way… some sort of time travel, wasn't it? There's no other reason for why he was there two months ago…"

"Yes… you see, with the help of Sousei, I temporarily rewired him and forced him to access your computer. While his mind was absorbed into the World Wide Web, it compressed into a simple electron formula. That rewiring of mine caused a little… shadowy science to happen, as you might like to call it. You see… some of us Shadows are very clever when it comes to time and space manipulation. In essence, he leapt backwards through time and felt for a brief moment, the speed of light. Must have been dizzying… I'm sure his memories got quite scrambled in the process. I'm amazed that it only took him a few weeks to recall them. Until then, he was quite mindless and silly…"

Kanji was having a hard time following that answer, but there was one thing he did understand… "Then it's your fault that he got all messed up… I mean, this ain't Kage, is it?"

Naoto huffed. She wasn't going to explain it all again to everyone, "No. It isn't."

Kanji look at Kon again and raised his fists, "So-… yeah! How could he think to attack my mother!? If his memories were all scrambled…"

"Easy… Tell me, ~~Kanji-kun~~ … don't you have a Nakamura in your family?" Kon questioned playfully.

"That's… my ma's side of the family… Daichi has that last name, too," Kanji blinked.

Naoto's mouth hung open.

"See? She gets it," Kon pointed towards Naoto, "And she's probably the only one who's going to get it… She knows what bloodline killed her own parents ages ago. I'm willing to bet that your little Kage mixed up those memories and thought that he'd be avenging Naoto's mother by killing your own family, ~~Kanji-kun~~."

"Y'can't be serious…" Kanji leered. There was so much necessary information required for that whole theory to even make sense. Makoto Nakamura… and Daichi Nakamura… They had the same last names, but were their bloodlines the same? Most likely not… Still, in his scrambled state, Kage might have not known any better.

"It's all very simple when you come to understand it… When Kage traveled back two months ago, he resurfaced as a simple electrolyte that seeped into a batch of pain relief medicine during the chemical manufacturing process. Maybe it was an accident… or maybe it was fate, but let's just say that your mother picked up a bad supply of pills the day before she died. Essentially, he infected your mother through her own medicine… Within her body, he shut down all of her systems and absorbed her vitals until he was able to reconstruct a new body… this one…" Kon lifted his arms and flicked his tails from side to side, "… and he emerged into the world again."

"That medicine…" Naoto's breath was shallow. She remembered Goro's words from his interview a long time ago… and the bottle of pain medication that Kanji had picked up for Daichi the night he was Shadow Extracted by their gang. She feared thinking that it had all been relevant from the very beginning.

"Now then… I think we've all had a good enough talk. You might not be able to tell… but I'm getting very eager," Kon spoke, shifting in his spot. "I imagine Isamu ran off to get back-up… and they could be here at any moment now… I'm sure we've wasted just enough time to let him do that. But believe me when I say that he won't be making it back in time. See, by the time he does get here… you will all be dead," he claimed, posing with his feet firmly planted into the ground and his fingers curled in front of him.

"Yer full of it…" Kanji snorted boldly. Standing all together on one side of the room, with Personas included, were seventeen people. On Kon's side… he was very much alone.

"I would hope to be so. I haven't eaten in quite some time…" Kon boasted, holding his stance. He didn't plan on moving. The two parties faced off as the ticking of the room's clock signaled the passage of time. Just how long had they been talking for…? Kon's eyes traveled towards the clock…

Naoto's eyes followed.

It was almost midnight. Seconds until it, actually.

_55, 56, 57, 58, 59…_

Kon stood up straight at the last second and smiled.


	27. Chapter 27 - M

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

April 26th 2013, Friday

And that was when all hell broke loose. Naoto's vision suddenly surrendered to pitch, black darkness. There was no sound… no light… Where had she gone? Before she had a chance to call out to anyone, a crack of light appeared before her along with the sound of wood breaking. She was inside something… and wherever it was, she was safe. But something was trying to break its way inside. Yelling, Naoto stood back and watched as a fist thrust itself through the wooden container and grabbed at her neck. The surface was weak… and Naoto was easily pulled out from her confinement. She had been in a wooden coffin, and the world outside of it was the same hospital room as before, but tinged with a dirty green hue. It was just as distorted and frightening as the TV world, if not more. The hand which had pulled her out from the coffin was Kon's, and without any mercy, he tossed her shocked body against one of the room's shelves.

Collapsing against it and covered in painful splinters from the wood, Naoto heaved deeply and struggled to grab the gun at her side. Shaking uncontrollably, she lifted her aim towards the Shadow that slowly walked towards her and fired once, directly at his face. The bullet punched through one eyeball and seemed to lodge itself behind his eye socket, spilling out a stream of reddish-black oil down his cheek. Despite all that, he seemed to be completely unfazed. He was still smiling.

Where had everyone else gone? Behind Kon were rows of caskets… all placed conveniently where everyone else from the Investigation Team had previously been standing. Were they there as well, trapped inside them? It seemed like everything had gone still all of a sudden. Even the ticking clock on the wall had completely stopped.

Naoto's shaking hand gripped the trigger again when she realized that Kon wasn't slowing down. However, before she could fire again, she caught sight of a quick, metallic red blur in the corner of her eyes, followed by Kon collapsing onto the floor. Sousei, who was completely immune to the coffin's effect, had just punched the Shadow to the ground. Kon wouldn't stay there for very long, though. Rebounding off the ground, he reached for Sousei's arms and tried to wrestle him down, tails slapping wildly behind him. In fact, they almost seemed like weapons on their own, trying forcefully to jab and trip Sousei whenever he got behind him.

Thankfully, Sousei wasn't the only SSW on the scene here. Once the coast was clear, Ai ran out from behind the coffins and knelt down at Naoto's side, trying to lift her back up, "A-are you okay?"

"What the hell is this…!?" Naoto gasped, feeling indescribable pain from being launched across the room. She was very slow to stand.

"It's called the Dark Hour… a time after midnight that normally only Shadows can pass through," Ai explained, watching the fight before them. She was ready to join in if she needed to. "We SSWs also have access to it… but humans are supposed to remain in their coffins. You should have been safe…"

"I doubt it was Kon's plan to keep me safe…" Naoto gripped her aching forehead, "He knew this was going to happen… He dragged on that conversation for as long as he could until it did… and now we're here on his playing field," she glanced over at the rows of coffins, "And with everyone else trapped, we're pretty short on help."

"But they have to come out…! They're Persona users!" Ai responded. She sounded very confused about the situation.

In one smooth motion during their conflict, Kon slid towards Sousei's feet and tripped him down, following up that maneuver with a swift drive of his knee into the back of the android's head. Gripping his skull with one hand, Sousei tried to lunge back with a sharp elbow jab, but the Shadow had already dominated the offensive. With Sousei on the floor, Kon plunged his foot into the android's chest and pressed down firmly. It was at that point that Ai decided to intervene and she quickly launched herself towards the blood hungry Shadow with a loaded fist. But even though he was blind in one eye, the Shadow's reflexes were too good. The moment he caught sight of Ai's attack, he outstretched his hands and grappled her own between his, using her own momentum to toss her away in the direction that she was already flying: towards the row of coffins that blocked the doorway.

"Hahaa…!" the Shadow sneered with amusement as the girl crashed against the coffins, causing some of them to topple like dominos against each other. Taking advantage of the moment, Kon kneeled down and grabbed Sousei's arm with both his hands and tails. With his tendrils wrapped around the android's arms, Kon sent a jolting shock of electricity through the gun that released its firing mechanisms. Aimed directly at the collapsed Ai and coffins, the gun fired a barrage of bullets that pierced her hull and dented the sides of the caskets.

Unable to stop himself while the tails remained wrapped around his arm, Sousei forcefully tried to flip over the Shadow in order to redirect his own attack at something less valuable. The aim of the gun trailed across the floor during their flip and refocused on an empty corner of the room where it continued to spray bullets. In time, the gun's belligerent firing petered off into an empty whirring noise as the weapon ran out of ammo.

Pinned underneath the android, Kon stared up with his one sympathetic eye and smiled, "Aww~"

"That ain't stopping me…" Sousei heaved, lifting up his one free arm. Even without his gun, he was still at an advantage, and he took the opportunity to thrust his fist against Kon's skull. The damage to the Shadow's face was starting to cause his artificial skin to tear and warp, revealing a sturdy skeleton of metal underneath.

Kon's crooked jaw continued to jeer at Sousei, "Just who do you think you're hurting…?"

The speed at which the Shadow recovered from every blow was staggering. It was if he wasn't feeling any pain at all. From underneath Sousei, Kon's legs curled up and pressed hard against the android's torso, launching him off and against the side of the hospital bed. As his tails unraveled from Sousei's arms, they sent out one more terminal electric shock that caused the android to spasm and outright shut down. It was an inconceivable sight, considering the fact that Sousei was almost two times larger and most likely three times heavier than the tiny Shadow. Still, unimpaired by all the damage to his body, Kon rose back onto his two legs and returned to his original line of focus: Naoto.

"S-stop…" Naoto uttered, backing herself against a wall with her gun outstretched before her. Her aim was very steady this time, "… Or else I'll take out your other eye…"

"I don't need them…" Kon declared, not at all intimidated. Lifting a hand to his face, he pressed his thumb and index fingers together into his eye socket and dug until he found the foreign bullet inside. Pulling it out, he flicked the bloody piece of metal to the ground. "Even if you could blind me… I would follow your retched stink to the end of the world…"

With a disoriented whine, Naoto unleashed two more bullets from her gun into the Shadow's neck and collar bone. The only things that recoiled were her hands.

Uninterrupted, Kon reached forwards and clenched his fist around Naoto's neck, pulling her in close, "You didn't hesitate that time…" he hissed, "You're not discouraged at all about harming this body, are you…? … Surprising, since it is yours…" His hand gripped around her neck and squeezed tighter, pinning Naoto against the wall behind her. As her vision blurred, she could see Kon's agape mouth unhinging and drawing closer to her, "Tasty, tasty, host-kun…"

Then, from the other side of the room, boomed an alarming sound that caused Kon to glance away from his meal for just a moment. Both he and Naoto stood in temporary shock as the Investigation Team released themselves from their coffins and readied their various Personas and weapons. Hunched against one of the coffins was Ai Kurogami, who smiled with exhaustion and gave a thumbs up to the detective. Clearly, Ai had found a way to release the others while Kon was distracted.

In one fluid motion, Naoto struck her knee upwards and planted it between Kon's legs, causing him to give off a sharp cry. Toppling back, Kon released his grip on Naoto's neck and grabbed at himself in agony.

Naoto stood up straight and rubbed her throat, breathing deeply, "Huh… I thought you wouldn't feel that…"

"I-…! You…!" Kon glared with tears in his eyes. Then, just seconds later, he stood up straight again, "Oh wait… I didn't. Huh, must have been something psychological…" he rubbed the back of his head.

Most of the males in the team were, like-wise, wincing from visual pain.

Hopping backwards and away from the mass of Personas, Kon rested his knees on top of the hospital bed and gave a sharp scowl, "Fine then… If you're all so desperate to intervene, then I might as well level out the field again…" he spoke lowly, his fingers clenched into the bed sheets. Lurched on all fours, the Shadow's body seemed to occasionally spasm as every artificial muscle in his arms and legs flexed. The foreign tails coiled under his legs like a terrified dog's tail, but the only worry that he had was over the intense amount of pain that he was about to endure. Indeed, the only pain that he would endure...

Before everyone's eyes, Kon gave off a hauntingly low scream and sunk his teeth into the folds of the bed sheet, the tips of his fingers going red from the pressure. In the midst of his hollering, his voice distorted as the length of his neck suddenly built up, the tiny claws within it extending inches at a time. The area around each claw swelled, as if his neck was segmenting into ever-growing tumors. The process continued until the entire girth of his neck was wider than his own head and lengthier than the rest of his body which now hung limp behind him. The tails as well had expanded in size, and as they thrashed from side to side, they seemed to tear and pull out of the synthetic skin that surrounded his body. Before long, the remainder of Kon's skin tore away from the taut expansion and revealed a twisted, mechanical creature that resembled a snake or caterpillar underneath. It continued to grow in size until the hospital bed underneath it completely caved in. The only things holding the bed together were the eight large suctioning legs at Kon's abdomen, and the six smaller claws that stretched out from his thorax. From his body dripped a sheen layer of dark, oily red that further discoloured the already dirty green floor. At his mouth, which was lined with large, flat teeth, droned a painful sounding buzz. His unnatural body continued to occasionally convulse until all at once, his jaw forced itself wide and instead of giving off a bloodcurdling, territorial scream like anyone else would have expected… something else came out. From the back of Kon's throat appeared another head entirely. Insect-like, its face was alien and its eyes were a series of twelve holes that lined its mandible. As it opened its jaws, it revealed a nightmarishly complex mouth with rows of shark-like serrated teeth. And despite the dull, bloodied grey armor around it, this head was plated in gold and crowned with yellow, star-like protrusions. It was a familiar sight to Naoto and Kanji… It looked like the same head that Amatsu Mikaboshi had.

"A parasite… within a parasite…" Naoto gripped her gun tightly, but she knew very well that it would serve no purpose against this creature. There wasn't a sliver of humanity left in Kon, and as such, no human made weapons would do any good.

"Ice should work well… you can do this guys!" Rise spoke up from behind the intimidated Investigation Team. When all eyes fell on her smiling face, they could see that the last thing anyone needed to be right now was scared.

"You're right… it's just another Shadow, we can deal with this!" Yosuke punched his fist into the air and stepped forwards. Invigorated, he launched his Persona Susano-o forwards. Following him was Chie's Suzuka Gongen, who planned to unleash a gusty hail of ice on the Shadow with Yosuke's assistance.

However, Kon would allow no such thing. Before their attack could make contact, the caterpillar rolled and squirmed off the bed. He wasn't exactly agile in this state, but he was still surprisingly fast. All at once, the Shadow launched himself out of the already broken window and grappled onto the side of the building's walls, effectively escaping the room. It was no longer a place for a creature as large and bulbous as he was.

"Gk-… follow it!" Chie yelled out at her Persona, who eagerly tried to chase the Shadow out the building. However, the moment Suzuka Gongen made contact with the open window, her body bounced back and fell onto the room's tiled floor. It was as if there was still glass… completely impenetrable glass. No one else would be able to get out that way. Chie pressed a hand to her forehead as both she and her Persona tried to stabilize themselves.

"We need to find another way," Yu Narukami suggested, ready to lead the team out of the room.

With a surprisingly nimble effort, Ai knelt down at her brother's side and lifted him up into her arms. She had already tried to reset his systems, but it would be a short while until he was able to regain his consciousness.

"Allow me~" Teddie spoke out to the little android. As he called out his Persona, the great bear Kamui assisted in lifting the battered Sousei with its large paws. Now that they were ready to go, the team filtered out of the devastated bedroom and back into the hallway. They made it their plan to find a stairwell, since most electrical devices such as elevators wouldn't work in the Dark Hour.

_On Monday, he ate through Yu, but he was still hungry…_

An odd reverberating voice echoed out through the halls of the hospital. It sounded as if it should have been coming from the PA systems, but in truth, the voice was echoing through the entire hospital itself. Unnerved by the voice, the group continued on until a loud thud was suddenly heard from behind everyone. Yukiko had tripped on the floor, and she delicately gripped at her knee as she tried to stand back up.

"The floor… is wet…?" Yukiko blinked, being the first to notice that a porous substance seemed to be seeping through the otherwise smooth marbled flooring.

_On Tuesday, he ate through Yosuke and Chie, but he was still hungry…_

As everyone stepped to get their bearings on the floor, they began to notice that the hard flooring was suddenly being overtaken by a soft, slimy texture. In time, the ceiling of the hallways also began to drip the same sort of stringy, liquid substance from its surface. Not curious enough to figure out what was going on, the Investigation Team quickly identified a stairwell and forced themselves one by one up it.

"This better lead us to the roof…!" Rise whined, finding it increasingly more difficult to walk up the stairs that progressively swelled and grew slimy.

"You… have… so much to explain…" Touko heaved as she ran up the stairs behind Naoto.

Naoto quickly shook her head, eyes wide as she watched the walls of the hospital transform around them. It was turning organic, fleshy, and it pulsated with glops of slime from every corner, "I can't even explain this…!"

_On Wednesday, he ate through Yukiko, Rise and Teddie, but he was still hungry…_

"He's eating us, damnit, what the hell do you think this is!? Just keep running…!" Kanji yelled out ahead.

It was a blessing to know that the building wasn't very tall… It was about ten stories, but that was nothing compared to most company skyscrapers. Plus, they were originally on the sixth floor already, so they didn't have very far to go. The moment they hit the top floor, the Investigation Team scrambled to find an exit, and they were lucky enough to notice such a door at the end of the hallway. Still ahead of the fleshy transformation, the team didn't stop for an instant, and bolted towards the doorway like bats out of hell.

_On Thursday, he ate through Sousei and Ai, but he was still hungry…_

The sound of the echoing voice drew closer as they reached the door and they begged that this would be an appropriate exit from Kon's little digestion game. From Yu Narukami's body grew a deep blue aura as he brought forth Izanagi-no-Okami and directed the Persona at the exit. With its sword braced in both hands, the deity launched itself at the door and with great success, plowed through it like a knife to a stick of butter. The entire team toppled out of the building and into the fresh air on the roof top, everyone gasping with relief.

As expected, awaiting them at the top of the roof was Kon, his mouth wide open as trails of saliva dripped from his jowls. From within that detestable mouth echoed the same voice that spoke out from inside the hospital.

_On Friday, he ate through ~~Kanji-kun~~, but he was still hungry…_

The humorously high pitched and adorable reiteration of Kanji's name was no reason for anyone to drop their guard. The Shadow quickly rose up onto its thick hind legs and tossed itself into a full 360 turn, the whip-like ends of its tail sending out a loud crack of lightning at the team. Izanagi-no-Okami's lengthy sword served as a lightning rod and took the full impact of the bolt, sending a paralyzing current through the Persona's body. In perfect timing, Yu Narukami's body also shook from the painful impact.

Yukiko and Teddie took medical priority and made every attempt to make sure that Yu didn't lose consciousness from the severe blow. The pain associated with feeling your own Persona's physical suffering seemed to be much more intense in this realm. Being so used to the rules of the TV world, a world which was already comprised of human thoughts and desires, this one felt completely different. Indeed, this world was not created by humans… this world was created by Shadows.

With Izanagi-no-Okami temporarily out of commission and the Amaterasu/Kamui team dedicated to healing, the only Personas left with the audacity to fight were Yosuke's and Chie's. Even though there were five other individuals on their side, none of them had available Personas to assist with. Completely useless as they were, Touko and Kanji stood as far back from the fighting as they could.

Just as Kon had planned… This leveled out the playing field perfectly for him.

"Suzuka deals with ice, Yosuke! You're going to have to back me up and give me a clear shot at this thing," Chie stepped forwards, her fists balled together as she nimbly hopped upon both feet.

Yosuke scoffed, "If you can't hit that thing, then I'll be ashamed. He's freakin' huge…!" However, knowing his place in this set-up, Yosuke sent out Susano-o and attempted to redirect Kon's attention away from the rest of the group. Sliding low to the ground, the Persona ducked underneath Kon's front claws and tried to send a powered blast of wind against the Shadow's underside.

In response, Kon let out a disgruntled murmur and flattened himself low to the ground, all fourteen legs planted on the pavement. The Shadow's landing caused the very ground to shake, and his attention did not divert from the mass of people in front of him. Now that he was lowered, Kon lifted his rear upwards and his tails began to quiver behind him. Sparks flickered between the two super conductive cords.

Although Susano-o made a valiant effort to distract the beast, there was no stopping it. "He's too heavy, I can't budge him…!" Yosuke shouted out, "We're going to have to go at it together."

"Too late, he's already preparing for round two!" Yukiko shouted, "Everyone get down!"

As Kon planted a row of claws in front of him, he pivoted on the spot and sent another electrified current in the team's direction. Just as Yukiko had ordered, everyone flattened down in order to ground themselves as best as they could. This time, the electricity avoided all biological and supernatural life. Instead, it flowed into the two metal-based androids and zapped hard at their delicate circuitry. Ai's eyes snapped open and she heaved from the sudden overflow of energy. Her brother, on the other hand… received just as much energy as he needed to fully reset himself.

Immediately awakened from the charge, Sousei brought himself to a stand and activated the boosters in his legs, launching himself at the beast with the blunt end of his gun at the ready. In response, Kon turned his head downwards in an attempt to shield himself with the sturdy shell that covered over the topmost sections of his body. Still, feeling the full effect of his electrical charge returning straight back at him in physical form was nothing to shrug off. Kon let out a low cry as the hull of his cranium was smashed into, exactly where his eye would have been had he been in human-shaped form. Sousei drove the gun in deep and regretted not having any bullets to pop into the creature, "You set up a weak spot, Shirogane! It's in his eye!"

Naoto was, for once, glad that her bullets didn't go to waste, "Then you should find dents in his neck as well!"

"On it!" Chie shouted, finally sending a fully buffed Suzuka in hot pursuit of the distracted caterpillar. Diving low, the bandit woman spun her double-bladed sword in both hands and sliced with direct contact up Kon's belly and into his neck where the blade cracked through.

Giving off a pained screech, Kon thrashed about in an attempt to throw both the Persona and android off of him. The resulting flails only drove Suzuka's blade further into his armor and inside where the real damage was done. The only truly mobile parts of his body were his tails, but even as they flicked and whipped around, they would not be able to reach his attackers all the way at his front. The little claws at his torso tried to scratch at Suzuka, but she rested safely under his chin where he wouldn't be able to reach. Pushed to make a self-destructive move, Kon curled his body inwards like a potato bug and launched himself into the air. The jump sent him into a forwards roll, causing Suzuka to be effectively crushed between his chin and claws, and when he landed smack dab on his forehead, Sousei too found himself trampled into the cement roof. Just as pained from that maneuver, Kon gave off a throaty groan and hobbled his massive weight from side to side in dizziness, falling down onto his side with a great thud.

In response to the attack, Chie gave off a breathless scream, feeling her lungs cave in as Suzuka lay crushed under Kon's weight. Her shaky hand lifted into the air and with the last of her energy, she recalled the Persona and mindlessly fell to her knees.

Ai gave off a surprised gasp and caught Chie before she fell any harder onto the ground. It was now Yukiko's job to tend to Chie while Teddie monitored Yu. With that taken care of, Ai rushed to her brother and tried to pull him away while Kon was still recovering from his death roll. They didn't have any more healers… Things would really start going downhill if one more person got fatally injured.

"This can't go on…" Naoto breathed heavily, "But somehow… somehow we need to bide our time until the hour is over. Rise, how long have we been here for…!?"

"Just over half an hour…" Rise's shaky voice answered. It was no good… there was no way that the team could last more than ten minutes of this. Next up would be Yosuke… and his wind magic clearly had no effect on a metallic creature this heavy.

Naoto brought herself off the ground and stared hard into the Shadow's multiple, sunken eyes. The parasite which arose from the caterpillar's throat had an arrogant look of victory upon its estranged face… It looked like it was smiling deviously, and a vibrating noise escaped from it once more.

_On Saturday, he ate through host-kun…_

When Naoto looked closer, she could see that the body it had emerged from, the caterpillar itself… it was almost crying. It may have been an effect of the injury that Sousei had caused to its cranium, which dripped a stream of tear-like blood down its side. But something else about its wide, stretched open jaw made it look like it was crying, or screaming. Drawn to the sight of a pained Shadow… her Shadow… Naoto stepped forwards.

"O-oi…!" Kanji yelled out.

He wasn't the only one. The uninjured of the team stood on their two legs and reached forwards, as if they were begging Naoto to come back. But she didn't. Without any hesitation, Naoto walked away from the group and out into the open space before the creature. The closer she got, the more she realized how sizable Kon really was… At the largest section, he must have risen at least twenty feet off the ground. Being the shorty that she was, Naoto was barely a quarter of this creature's size… and that was only by height. When she stepped close enough to touch it, she realized that this creature wasn't going to attack. It lay still… waiting.

"Are you hurt…?" Naoto questioned, her eyes lidded.

The creature responded with a whiny, alien gurgle in the back of its throat.

She closed her eyes in response, "Show me where it hurts… alright… Kage?"

With an almost instant reply, the creature lifted itself off of its side and rose back up onto its trunk-like rear legs. The six claws in front of it oscillated inwards as if beckoning her to come closer. Naoto watched them closely, lowering her gaze from his eyes and towards his torso, lifting a hand towards it. It was at that point that Naoto heard a number of alarming yells behind her. However, before she had the chance to look back over her shoulder at everyone else, the scene around her went completely dark. Kon had lowered his jaws upon her, and with one gripping bite, he lifted Naoto's body into the air and sent her down his throat in one whole piece. The sounds of her friend's alerted yells dissipated until there was nothing but silence.

* * *

Is this what death feels like…? Absolutely nothing? There was no pain, no sound, no recollection of one's entire life before one's very eyes… none of that. Naoto's mind passed through unconscious ramblings to conscious thought when she realized that the weight of the world's gravity was still upon her, and she was still breathing. The fearful memory of what had just happened shook her awake like a nightmare the moment she was able to recall it. But this place she was in now… was senseless and unearthly. She could feel some sort of ground below her, but everything in this place was nothing more than a foggy, pale white sky. There was no horizon, no floor, no ceiling… Everything was just as it was. The only sensible thing here was the fact that Naoto could stand… and though it pained her to do so, she did eventually manage to bring herself to her own two feet. Where was she…?

"Hello…!?" Naoto called out. It was the only thing that she could think to do. But to her surprise, her voice didn't make any sound. It felt like words had come out of her throat… and given the fact that she could hear her own footsteps, she knew that she wasn't deaf. But still… no noise escaped from her mouth.

Naoto shook lightly and hugged her arms together, eyes darting from side to side as she tried to think of a way out of this. It was just moments later when Naoto suddenly heard her own voice echo back from a distance away. It was the same 'hello!?', but only now was she able to hear it. Spinning around in the direction that she heard her voice echo back from, Naoto's pupils shrunk when she saw what had been in front of her.

Laying on his side on the solid floor was the upper half of Kage's body. What remained below that was nothing more than an eviscerated midsection with circuits and cords dangling below his belly button. He lay bare on the ground with his blank eyes open and his hands relaxed as if he were dead. But when Naoto took one step back from surprise, she noticed that his eyes were in fact following her.

"Hello," he spoke out between dry, parted lips.

Naoto's shivers intensified as she stared back at him. His words alone caused her legs to buckle and she lowered herself down onto her knees before him, "K-Kage…"

The Shadow effortlessly smirked once in response, and then let his face go blank again. The complete lack of energy in his voice made it difficult to register his emotions, "I'm glad to see you, host-kun…"

"Why… Why are you here?" Naoto breathed heavily, "Do you know where this is…?"

Kage's eyes glanced up and then around at the surrounding area. If Naoto had to guess, she would believe that he was just as confused as she was, "I guess… we're dying, host-kun."

Naoto slowly shook her head, "No… No I…" she gulped hard, "You were here all along… weren't you? Inside this beast… I think we're inside a Shadow, Kage… And we need to find a way out…"

Kage gave off a soft huff of a laugh and looked down at his disemboweled self, "I don't think I'd be able to get very far…" Not without legs he wouldn't. Looking back up, he made no effort to hide the tears that were welling in his eyes, "You heard… the truth. I'm dying, host-kun… there's nothing left that I can offer you. Except… that maybe with the last of what energy I've got, I might be able to set you free from here…"

Naoto squinted her eyes together and stood up, "Kage… that's not true. What I heard the loudest was the fact that… you've been persistent. That you've been refusing to die…" she frowned, "There has to be a reason for that… There's a reason why you're still here! A little unsightly, I'll admit but… you can't give up. Something is keeping you alive, and there's no way I'm letting you quit on that!"

Kage winced as he tried to speak, "Nn… I have… memories. Only a few that are important but… they're the only things that have stuck with me. All of them… are from the times that I spent here with you, host-kun," he looked up, the natural glow in his eyes dimming, "Everything else about me… everything that I was before that point. The Persona that I was and the Shadow that I used to be… he erased all of that from me. I can't remember anything… Not a single thing from when I used to be a part of you…"

"I see… then those memories are very important indeed. He'll never take them away from you… and as long as you have them, you will live…!" Naoto insisted as she lowered a hand, "Please… let it be my turn to help you…"

Kage stared up with shallow eyes, "That… isn't what's keeping me alive…" he spoke softly, turning his gaze down, "I need to die… I took something precious from you a long time ago… something that doesn't belong to me. It's… the real reason why I'm still here. But I can't keep this forever, it would be wrong…"

Naoto lifted a brow and tilted her head, "What are you talking about…?"

"Host-kun… I… There was something your grandpa told me… About the time that I awoke within you… when your mother died…" he curled his head down, "I remember this one thing… That when Makoto jumped from your mother's body and into your own, he brought with him something… odd. I believe it was a soul…"

Naoto blinked, "My mother's soul…?" she questioned, making sense of why her mother might have died at that time.

But Kage shook his head, "No… your mother's soul was already long gone from her body. But there was another's at the time… within her…" the Shadow closed his eyes, "I finally understood what it was when your grandpa told me this… He said that… your mother was pregnant before she died. I don't think… you were ever told this…"

Naoto gulped down and wet her throat, mouth falling agape afterwards.

"Host-kun, I've been harboring that soul all this time… of what could have been your sibling… And at long last, it is time for me to release it…" Kage shivered lightly, "Whether or not I help you escape, I will die here… there is simply no way out for me. I shouldn't be alive because of this…"

"Heh, no way out…" Naoto crossed her arms in front of her, "So… you're telling me that you've got a human soul then, don't you?"

"I didn't-…" Kage cut himself short and blinked. "…"

"Aha… you do, don't you?" Naoto leaned in close, "You're a nasty little thief, aren't you? Taking people's internet accounts… taking people's souls… and utterly ruining my life these past few weeks…"

"Don't be mad…" Kage squeaked into his shoulder.

"Oh, I'm furious…" Naoto spoke, but the tone of her voice said otherwise. There was no way that she could hold a straight face… For some reason, she was smiling. "I appreciate you telling me all of this, Kage… I think, in a way, that small amount of information from Grandpa may have just saved your life. See, I thought for the longest time… why of all things did my Shadow have to be such a damn child? We're hardly alike, you and I… And don't you dare try to give me a spiel about how you're half me and half the man that went and killed our parents. Think about it, Kage… Do we really share the same ego? The same soul…?"

"Oh, don't you dare…" Kage sat up on his elbows, his piercing eyes staring directly at Naoto's.

She nodded, "Ah, I think you know where I'm going with this… Plus, I promised I'd take you to see a Featherman movie, didn't I? I promised 'you' that… not my Shadow… 'Cause after all…" Standing back on her feet, Naoto cupped her hands over her ears and had no intention of hearing his complaints, "You're~…"

"No… stop…!" Kage shouted.

"Not~" she continued.

"No, no, you're going to get us both killed …!"

"Me…" she spoke the words, turning back towards Kage with a victorious smile, "… anymore…"

* * *

As if little to no time had passed at all during Naoto's disappearance, the remaining Investigation Team slumped against each other and their injured comrades and made a strong effort to hold back the creature with their battered and exhausted Personas. Yukiko and Teddie were beginning to lose their strength since the amount of exertion required in order to heal the others was becoming far too demanding. There were too many injuries… and too much distress from having lost their comrade. Kanji and Touko in particular… couldn't even watch anymore. With their faces buried into their knees and hands, they wept and waited for the same fate to befall them. It was a losing battle… and hardly anyone had the strength to carry on.

But then, at the very moment when it all seemed bleak, a very unexpected and high pitched noise squeezed its way out from the parasite's mouth. Out of nowhere… the creature started curling together in violent pain, its legs stomping hard on the cement.

"What's wrong with it?" Teddie spoke up as he applied his healing prowess on an injured Sousei.

"I couldn't tell you…" Rise slowly shook her head, "Wait… no… is that? That can't be…"

The rest of the team suddenly looked up. Even Touko and Kanji were caught by surprise from Rise's choice of words.

The end result of the Shadow's screaming and flailing passed so quickly, it was easy to miss it if you blinked. In one swift motion, the creature rose up onto its hind legs and bellowed as a blast of energy escaped from the wound holes in its skull and neck. Following the abrupt internal damage was a figure… no, two figures… that violently burst from the weakened section of the Shadow's armor. The two of them were propelled by one, who's rocket boots and cheaply aerodynamic wings sent them soaring upwards to safety. They moved so quickly that it was hard to tell… but the two figures couldn't have possibly been anyone else.

"Naoto…?" Kanji brought himself to his feet and stared sky-high, "… And… and that's Kage…!"

The beast gave out a terrified howl as it tried to stand, its mechanical parts stretching as far as they could. Still, it was impossible for Kon to reach the high flying pair. With one last attempt, he circled weakly on the spot and thrust his electrified tails in their direction, trying to send a lethal strand of lightning at the two. With Kage's mechanical body and nothing to ground Naoto, surely this attack would be the last they would ever see.

As the lightning cracked from Kon's tails, Kage hugged Naoto's body close with one arm and used his other hand to pull out a weapon that he had long forgotten. In his grip was a supersized death ray. It contained… a saw blade launcher, had an awesome internal voice, and it was plated from grip to tip with solid cadmium. Along its lengthy side was the word 'KAGERAY', whose letters highlighted from K to Y as the weapon charged and fired in quick response.

"The end is nigh…" the cyborg whispered, the beam of his ray gun penetrating through the electric blast that Kon had fired. Dissipating the electric current, it continued to travel until it landed a powerful blow to the Shadow's side, shredding and melting metal until it pierced through to the caterpillar's other side.

Kon gave off a withering cry, his jaw locked open as he collapsed to the ground from the terminal injuries. His metallic body convulsed and showed no more signs of aggression. It was done…

As Kage lowered himself and Naoto down towards the ground, the sky suddenly cleared of its eerie green hue and the lime-coloured moon went pale. The hazy darkness that covered the world before suddenly lifted, and from outside, the sound of cars passing on the streets could be heard once again. As if nothing had happened, the world returned to its usual, nighttime self. At the same time, the Personas that the Investigation Team had brought forth dissipated into the air and were recalled back to their owners. From that point, even if they tried, no one was able to release their Persona into the real world again.

Quite ungracefully, Kage suddenly stumbled onto the ground with Naoto when the sudden shift from Dark Hour to regular midnight hour removed him of his berserked cyborg form, the wings and rocket boots going with it. In his place returned the usual Kage, draped in Naoto's summer blue clothing, yellow tie, and his greatly oversized lab coat. There were no more tails… and no more thorns. When the unexpected shift in reality happened, both he and Naoto tumbled to the ground and the first thing that Kage could think to do was hug himself with relief, "I'm so happy…!"

Naoto sat up and rubbed the back of her head, "You did it… you really did it, Kage…"

The boy looked up, "Oh- well… yeah, I guess I beat up the Shadow. But… I'm just so happy that my lab coat came back!" he wrapped his arms tighter around himself, "I missed you so much~"

The rest of the team smiled with relief, but the scene before them wasn't finished just yet… When the world had shifted out of the Dark Hour, Kon had also lost his ability to take on his beastly caterpillar form. After reverting back to the body that he was previously in, Kon sat on the cold cement on his hands and knees, injuries covering his entire body. He shook on the spot and kept a good distance away from the rest of the team. The only thing that Kon had left was his host's old body, but that wouldn't be enough anymore. Kage had broken free of him, and Kon's plans of staying in the hospital to feed off of the Shadow Extraction victims had been thwarted. He had nowhere to go, and soon he would fade away.

Finally done with his self-snuggling, Kage looked up and noticed the doppelganger in front of him. Curious, he stood up and made his way over to Kon, kneeling down in front of him like a perfect imitation. Their golden eyes stared into each other. One set showing pain, and the other showing sympathy.

"I have no more attachments…" Kon lowered his head, trailing a fingernail into the ground in front of them, "… As a Shadow, that means that it is time for me to go."

"As a Shadow…" Kage leaned in close, setting his hand down on top of Kon's. "But what about… as a Persona?"

Kon quickly looked back up, a bewildered look on his face. The fact that Kage would suggest something so outlandish… so ignorant… and childish… "I've already caused you too much harm. I resided within you for the express purpose of taking over your life… for years. What train of idiotic thought would lead you to believe that I would do any better for you as a Persona? Why would you take me back, after all this?"

Kage sat up straight and smiled, clapping his hands together once, "Because I art thou."

"… And thou art I…?" Kon frowned, pulling his hand back now that it was free. However, even if he resisted it, the deal had been set in stone through those small words alone. Kon's eyes widened as he felt his body lift off the ground, "E-ey…! I didn't actually mean-…! … Oh fine… I suppose the trials of time and fortune have determined that my fate will not end here tonight. The wheel will continue to turn..." Letting the ethereal blue glow take over his body, Kon closed his eyes and just as Teddie had miraculously developed an ego, faced his other self and awoke his own Persona… now, it was Kage's turn.

Replacing the battered old body was none other than Amatsu Mikaboshi in a very complete, very dignified form. No longer was his lower body an oozing mess and his mouth crooked from his fangs. Now, the star-headed Persona stood tall on two legs, his body garbed in a long tailcoat. Spirals and stripes of black and blue covered his awkwardly proportioned limbs and torso, giving him a sleek and agile look. Then, just as quickly as the creature appeared before everyone… did it disappear… replaced by a spiraling, upside-down Wheel of Fortune card which rested and dissipated against Kage's chest.

With a gentle sigh of relief, Kage stared over his shoulder at the rest of the Investigation Team and smiled wide, "… Glad to be back!"


	28. Chapter 28 - E

**Animus**

* * *

_Welcome to Animus! You can find the Tumblr page at AnimusFanfiction._

_As well, you can also find the full spiel on Animus and its disclaimers back on Chapter 1._

_Thanks and enjoy the show!_

* * *

**Conclusion**

The pitter patter of hard soled footsteps raced back to the hospital bedroom on the 6th floor of the building. Between the times when Isamu escaped from the scene, to when the Dark Hour occurred and passed… only about 15 minutes of actual time had occurred according to human perspective. Everything that had happened during that dark time had passed by in the blink of an eye, and like-wise, the disappearance of Naoto, Kon, and the Investigation Team from that room had also been instantaneous. The only trace of their activity that remained was the shattered window.

When Isamu returned with his back-up, the room had been cleared as if nothing had happened at all in there. Tsuge, too, had been called to the scene. When the two men entered the room, they knew very well that something precious of theirs had up and disappeared.

"W-where is it…?" Isamu blinked hard, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands.

Tsuge stared at his friend with a hard glare, "Where is it indeed…"

"Is this some kind of joke…?" the emergency task force that Isamu had called in stood behind them with guns in hand and full body armor covering their torsos. They expected nothing short of a serious situation… and though they prepared for the worst, they were left with nothing but an empty bedroom to investigate.

"Maybe… it went into hiding…?" Isamu spoke meekly.

That statement was followed up with a punishing strike to the top of Isamu's head via Tsuge's fist. The taller man quickly curled down from his discipline and gave off a pained sigh. Gone… The Shadow was all gone… and not a single trace of evidence left either man thinking that it would ever come back.

April 27th 2013, Saturday

_Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Naoto and Kage, happy birthday to you!_

The cheerfully cheesy song rang out through the dining room of the Shirogane Estate, its familiar words sung out by a dozen people. Everyone from the Investigation Team had stayed for the occasion, as well as Touko, Grandpa, and even Mitsuru who had been invited to the party in a disembodied laptop webcam form. At the head of the singing was Grandpa, who walked into the room with a ludicrously massive cake on a large tray. Hey, there were a lot of mouths to feed.

The shape that Grandpa had decided to make the cake in was ill-humored but very well appreciated. It was a large blob caked in black icing, with two little yellow beads for eyes and marzipan arms that wiggled into the air. On its back were two candles, one which was shaped as the number '18', and the other which was shaped as a question mark '?'. Everyone was immediately amused

"Shadow cake!" Kage sat up straight and clapped his hands together. A few others did the same, clapping and laughing at the sight of the cake.

"Just thought I'd do something special," Grandpa answered, setting the dessert down in front of them.

Kage and Naoto both leaned forwards and blew out the candles at the same time. During the light applause that followed, Naoto turned her eyes to Kage's and smiled lightly, "Know what I wished for…?"

Kage shook his head, "Not a clue~"

With a soft chuckle, they both shared the handle of the knife and made the first slice through the cake, dividing it up between all of their guests. During that time, Grandpa leaned forwards towards Kage and whispered lightly that 'I can get you something else if you'd like'. He meant yogurt.

The boy quickly shook his head, "No, I want to try this," he said, quite intent on giving the cake a taste test. If there was even a slim chance that he would be able to taste it, anyways… When all the slices of the cake were distributed, Kage reached for his fork and eagerly tried a piece. Feeling all eyes on him, he blinked a few times and smiled, "… It's good! It tastes super good."

Everyone else leaned back into their chairs and sighed with relief.

"Maybe it's because it's Shadow shaped," Kage joked, taking a few more bites.

Naoto shook her head, "No… it's because you're human."

A few forks dropped. As if on cue, Teddie immediately stood up and pointed, "I knew I smelled something different…!"

Kage recoiled back and turned his gaze away, a plaster of red appearing on his cheeks, "H-hey, that's…"

"… nothing to be ashamed of…" Naoto smiled, enjoying a few bites of her own cake. "Though, actually… I am a little amused. All those times that you completely and utterly refused to become human and… well, it happened anyways didn't it?"

"But… how?" Yukiko stared back and forth between both Kage and Teddie, "… I still don't understand. How did you two do it…?"

Kage blinked, parting his lips slowly, but Naoto quickly intervened, "He doesn't have to explain," she spoke, shaking her head.

Kage slowly nodded, "I found my place in this world… that's all…"

Naoto set her plate down and smiled, "I would go as far to say that I might actually consider you my brother now…"

There was an air of confusion in the room still, but as people continued to quietly eat their cake, Kage and Naoto shared a passing glance. Even though their minds had now been separated… there were times where they still understood what the other was thinking. 'To live in a higher state of mentality with your Shadow'… Makoto Nakamura would have been proud.

"So… just to clear something up… I haven't been able to summon my Persona at all since the events yesterday. Is anyone else having this problem…?" Chie spoke up.

Everyone nodded, and Yosuke followed up on that line of thought, "We don't even know why we were able to summon them in the first place… so I guess we can't complain."

Gulping lightly, Kage spoke up to answer that question, "That was… kind of my fault, actually…" He reeled back as all eyes fell on him again, "See… while I was being suppressed by Kon, he had at some point accessed the SSW servers. I watched as he did terrible things with them… he even got Ai Shadow Extracted at some point. I think he planned to use her for some other motive…" Kage tried to explain, "I didn't want that to happen… So, with the last of my energy, I took temporary control of Ai and… well… I used her to extract the Personas out of all of you…"

"Hua? Why would you do that?" Kanji quickly blinked. Ignorant to the loss of his own Persona, Kanji continued to mutter over the fact that he had never been able to summon his.

"So that you would save me…" Kage answered, looking up, "And you did."

Naoto sighed, "Alright, but… you know what Shadow Extracting does, Kage… Now we have to send everyone over to Mitsuru to get the kegare sucked out."

"But it's gone," the little boy shook his head and smiled, "When Kon turned himself into a Persona… all of the kegare that was linked with him dissipated. Because as a Shadow, it was a part of him… but now it is no more. And at the same time, all of your Personas returned to you because the influence of the Dark Hour set them straight," he made a small victory sign, "Case closed~"

"Huh…" Yu spoke up between bites of his cake, still looking down, "We humans saved a Shadow… and in turn, you saved all of us… by awakening a Persona and becoming human as well."

"Wheel of Fortune bullshit," Kanji concluded, waving a hand dismissively through the air.

As everyone finished their dessert, Grandpa's voice spoke up from the other end of the room. He had chosen to watch some TV while the Investigation Group discussed confusing matters, "I think you're all going to want to see this," he spoke up.

Curious, the group left their seats and flocked towards the living room where the TV news was broadcasting a story on the missing people incident. After summarizing up the heart of the matter, the group learned that all of the kidnapped victims had returned home in one piece. Most bizarre was the fact that none of them had any real answer as to why they had disappeared, where they had gone… and who rescued them.

"Did Kon set them free…?" Naoto blinked.

The rest of the Investigation Team softly chuckled, staring between each other.

"Actually…" Rise spoke up, "We found the victims while waiting for you to call us up to the 6th floor. They were being hidden at the back end of the building, a place that was totally unused and probably long forgotten about. Kanzeon noticed them… and so, we simply opened the door for them."

"Well, their bodies were paralyzed when we found them… we couldn't just leave them like that," Yukiko admitted, "But we didn't want to surprise them either. So, after I resuscitated them with Amaterasu's healing, we immediately left the scene and watched just long enough to make sure that they could escape. They left the building dizzy and confused… but… it looks like they all got home safely."

"Thank goodness…" Naoto sighed with an air of relief. It sounded like all the loose ends of this case were finally coming together. Well, except for one thing… "I guess… all that's left to be decided is whether or not I will be staying in this city." Everyone looked up with confusion, and Naoto continued, "I know what terrible things that Tsuge and Isamu have done… there's no way that I would be able to safely keep my job at the Yagokoro police station under their management. Thanks to this case, everything ended quite smoothly… but at the same time, we don't have any evidence of Tsuge's wrong-doing. He won't be punished…"

From the laptop which was left on the dining room table, Mitsuru spoke up and tried to get everyone's attention, "Are you talking about Tsuge?" she called out, "I already know very well that there was a breach in our company's security through his building. It doesn't matter who did it… all I know is that there's connection to the Kirijo Lab's servers somewhere within his complex…" she smiled softly, "Don't worry… he will be silenced accordingly."

Naoto stood up straight, "Mitsuru, that's… that's morbid…"

Mitsuru blinked, "What? I'm simply going to hold him accountable for all of the disarray that happened in the Kirijo Labs while he was an employee here. Trust me, if he needs to go to jail… then there are those that will very obediently send him there," she winked, "Just give me a call if he acts up…"

Naoto turned away from Mitsuru and chuckled softly, "Blackmail…? That's almost ironic…"

It was then that another voice spoke up from behind Mitsuru. It was the voice of the young android girl, Ai, as she bounced up and down behind Mitsuru and tried to peer inside the webcam's lens with her infinitely more complex eye. "Hiiii, happy birthday, you two!" she hollered out in celebration.

Both Kage and Naoto looked up and waved at the camera. "Thank you very much, it's good to see you again, Ai," Naoto spoke out, "How did the operation go?"

"Got my manual override all fixed and tidy!" Ai answered with a beaming smile, hitting a hand against her torso, "Labby-chan says that she's feeling much better too. Though actually, I was wondering… uhm… how is my brother feeling?"

Looking up from the dining room and out the front window, Naoto could see the brilliant red motorcycle resting outside on the pavement. His metal casting was polished and shone brightly underneath the afternoon sun. Not one to eat cake, Sousei had decided to stay outside for the evening, reveling in the knowledge that he wouldn't have to be contained in the Kirijo Labs. He was a free android, legally allowed to assist Naoto in all of her future endeavors. It was a great feeling, knowing that he would be needed…

"You mean Kage's babysitter?" Naoto joked.

Sousei's acute sensors picked up on her words and he gave off an alarmed honk.

"He'll be just fine."

THE END


End file.
